For all his claims that the left lacks civility, GOP Sen. Ted Cruz sure seems to delight in getting into celebrity pissing matches on Twitter.
This week, Texas’ Republican junior senator got into a feisty bout of name calling with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban that ran the gamut of topics from athletes kneeling during the national anthem to U.S. policy on China.
The jabs started when North Texas radio talk jock Mark Davis, tweeted about the NBA that “the minute one player kneels during the anthem, I am OUT.”
Davis tagged Cuban, who fired back a one-word response: “Bye.” In a subsequent tweet, the entrepreneur added, “If you want to complain, complain to your boss and ask why they don’t play the National Anthem every day before you start work.”
Not one to shy from fanning the flames of the culture war via his Twitter feed, Cruz posted a screenshot of Cuban’s post, then lashed out at the NBA owner without tagging him.
“NBA is telling everyone who stands for the flag, who honors our cops and our veterans, to ‘piss off’?” Cruz tweeted. “In Texas, no less?”
“Have some balls for once @tedcruz,” Cuban responded. “Speak to me. It’s my tweet.”
Cruz tweeted back, pointedly questioning Cuban’s views on China in apparent attempt to resurrect the controversy that erupted last year when the Houston Rockets’ GM expressed support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protesters.
The argument ended with Cuban questioning why Cruz was so eager to criticize China’s human rights record while having “no ability to stand up to and speak the truth” to an increasingly authoritarian Donald Trump.
Cruz’s parting shot evoked China’s coverup of the Wuhan outbreak and asked Cuban why he’s “terrified to say ONE WORD about China.”
Cruz’s spat with Cuban follows the senator’s online slap matches with Hellboy actor Ron Perlman, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor, Star Wars actor Mark Hamill, late night host Jimmy Kimmel and, well … too many others to keep up this listing exercise.
Makes you wonder what Cruz could accomplish for his constituents if he’d occasionally put down his phone and stop fawning for attention from famous people who happen to be better liked than he is.
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This article appears in Jul 15-28, 2020.
