deny and deflect

Ted Cruz backpedals hard on that homophobic conspiracy theory, but it’s too little too late

Ted Cruz in a blue suit speaking into a microphone.

Texas embarrassment Ted Cruz is trying his best to distance himself from a violently homophobic rumor he helped peddle last year, but like the effects of his hair products on his brain, the damage has already been done.

Last October, a right-wing nut named David DePape broke into the Pelosi household in an attempt to take Nancy Pelosi hostage and, upon finding that she wasn’t there, attacked her husband Paul with a hammer.

This incredibly violent and traumatic moment was met with ridicule and conspiracy theories by many on the right. They took a fake report of DePape being found in his underwear (along with an unrelated snippet of the police call transcript) and made up a wild story about the attacker being a male prostitute and Paul’s gay lover.

While Cruz didn’t affirm the story in so many words, he added his voice to the conspiracy conversation. When problematic columnist Matt Walsh put forth that “none of us will ever know for sure” the nature of the altercation, Cruz quote-tweeted saying, “truth.”

This “truth” also stated that DePape was “a hippie nudist from Berkeley” instead of a militant right-wing assailant. In the land of reality, he espoused tons of QAnon, anti-vaxx, and Holocaust-denying conspiracy theories. In a jailhouse interview, DePape raged against perceived “lies” from officials on the left and outright admitted to intending to break Nancy Pelosi’s kneecaps. As usual, Cruz’s view of “truth” is a shoddy one.

After recently being included on a list of Paul Pelosi detractors over the incident, Cruz took to Twitter to deny ever doing such:

As if his confirmation of Walsh’s “truth” wasn’t intending to cast doubt on Paul Pelosi’s version of events after being viciously victimized? Sure, Ted.

This week, the Superior Court of California released graphic police bodycam footage showing DePape (fully-clothed, mind you) actively striking Pelosi in the head with the hammer. Cruz doubled down on his attempted backpedal this week when confronted by TMZ and loudly asserted the same point of having called the attack a “horrific, violent attack” when it occurred.

He refuses to acknowledge the reporter asking if he intended to apologize to Pelosi now that his claims of doubt over the altercation had been fully dispelled by video evidence.

The reporter also points out that Elon Musk claims to have already apologized to the Pelosi family for doing the same, but Cruz doesn’t admit to any wrongdoing.

The senator can avoid taking responsibility for propagating homophobic rumors about the victim of a violent assault all he likes, but like the crystal clear bodycam footage spelling the situation out, the truth is available for all the see.

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