U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz claims to have figured out how progressive Abdul El-Sayed won the much-watched Democratic primary for Michigan’s contested U.S. Senate seat.
To hear Cruz’s claim, it wasn’t because of El-Sayed’s resonant Medicare-for-all message, his effective grassroots campaign or even his personal charisma. Instead Texas’ junior GOP senator held a shambolic subcommittee hearing Wednesday afternoon to claim the former public health official-turned-political candidate was part of the Muslim Brotherhood’s plot to control the United States.
Democrats skipped the hearing by the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Federal Courts, saying they refused to be part of a “political creepshow” staged to stir up anti-Muslim sentiment. Meanwhile, members of Cruz’s own party also took a raincheck, likely because he’s “so singularly disliked,” according to political news outlet NOTUS.
“The result was a one-man show of religious bigotry and conspiracy theories, an awkward development that Cruz attempted to conceal,” NOTUS reports.
Indeed, Cruz drew attention to the empty chairs on the Democratic side of the dais without mentioning that not a single GOP member of the subcommittee bothered to show up either, according to the story.
“The American people should ask themselves why not a single member of the minority decided that a hearing on terrorism was worth their time,” Cruz reportedly said. “It is an embarrassment and a disservice to the thousands of American victims of the Muslim Brotherhood.”
The goofy shit didn’t end there, though, according to NOTUS. Cruz spoke to spectators about the manner in which “the present members of this subcommittee” would conduct the hearing — even though he was the sole lawmaker participating.
“Over the next hour, [Cruz] struggled his way through Arabic names in a convoluted attempt to demonstrate that the Muslim Brotherhood is everywhere in America — in public schools, in universities, in government, probably in your sock drawer,” the report continued.
If elected, Michigan physician El-Sayed would be the country’s first Muslim senator, and right-wing groups have tried for years to link him to the Muslim Brotherhood, invoking the flimsiest of evidence.
In an emailed statement, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading Muslim civil rights group, blasted Cruz for staging a hearing designed to gin up animosity toward U.S. Muslims for his personal political gain.
CAIR pointed out that Cruz’s hearing was originally scheduled for May 20, but was postponed after an anti-Muslim gunman opened fire outside the Islamic Center of San Antonio, slaying a security guard and two other people. Police are investigating the attack as a hate crime.
“At a time when CAIR is recording record-high reports of anti-Muslim discrimination and hate incidents, this hearing is not only irresponsible, it is dangerous,” CAIR Director of Government Affairs Robert S. McCaw said in an emailed statement. “American Muslims are a community of constituents to be represented, not a people to be exploited.”
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