Senator Ted Cruz was among those to question SCOTUS nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, this week.
Like other senior Republicans, including Lindsey Graham and Josh Hawley, Cruz’s questions pushed Jackson on culture war issues such as gender identity and critical race theory. He also asked Jackson about her past handling of child pornography cases.
In the end, Cruz overran his time and had to be cut off by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin. However, his grandstanding prompted plenty of backlash online.
Among the bluntest was actor Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy). Perlman posted a video message to Cruz on Twitter.
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“Hi Ted, Ron here,” Perlman said. “Listen, I know how tempting it is to appeal to the real lowest form of humanity here in the United States, the bottom feeders, people who pride themselves on hatred and un-education and inability to read and inability to understand the difference between true patriotism and the bullshit you’re selling.
“I know how tempting it is to play to those people,” Perlman continued. “Because at least you have a base, but Jesus Christ Ted, for somebody with a really, really small dick, you get to be a bigger prick every fucking day. Go fuck yourself.”
Dear @tedcruz pic.twitter.com/OxGEk4hlMn
— Ron Perlman (@perlmutations) March 23, 2022
Others to criticize Cruz were Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. During his questioning, Cruz highlighted several books he took issue with, including Antiracist Baby by Ibram X. Kendi, and The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale. Cruz held up what appeared to be a mint condition copy of the latter book.
AOC tweeted a photo, saying: “When you’re showing off the next book you want banned with the perfect edges and everything to underscore to everyone you haven’t actually read it.”
When you’re showing off the next book you want banned with the perfect edges and everything to underscore to everyone you haven’t actually read it pic.twitter.com/XNBqBOlxsC
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 22, 2022
After Cruz’s mention of the book, it shot up the Amazon sales charts, prompting a response from its author, Vitale.
Every purchase now comes with a vial of Ted Cruz tears.
— Alex Vitale (@avitale) March 23, 2022
Ted Cruz is a former student of the prominent lawyer Alan Dershowitz, but his one-time mentor had no time for his line of questioning, blasting it as “absurd” during a live stream on Rumble.
Dershowitz took particular exception to Cruz’s comments about gender identity, asking Jackson that if someone can change gender whether he, a Hispanic man, could change to be Asian. Jackson declined to answer “hypotheticals”.
Here’s a few more responses to Cruz’s inquisition of Jackson.
I can’t get over the fact that Ted Cruz yelled at Montana airport employees “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” and they had to call the cops on him because he was so pissed that he was missing his flight back to DC to ask Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson if babies are racist
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) March 22, 2022
Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley need to smile more. And they’re so emotional! And their voices sound shrill, they seem hysterical. It must be that time of the month.
— Amy Siskind 🏳️🌈 (@Amy_Siskind) March 22, 2022
Having to pretend to respect Ted Cruz for three whole days seems by far the hardest part of the SCOTUS confirmation process
— Hari Kunzru (@harikunzru) March 23, 2022
Ben Sasse moments after Ted Cruz throws a performative tantrum that was tailormade for Hannity: “I think we should recognize that the jackassery we often see around here is partly because of people mugging for short-term camera opportunities.” pic.twitter.com/3YqBgrrXNR
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 23, 2022
If anyone has questions about Ketanji Brown Jackson’s judicial demeanor they’re fully resolved by how patiently & skillfully she’s responded to Ted Cruz’s “questions.”
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) March 22, 2022
Dear Ted Cruz,
You will never be President.Sincerely,
All of America.— Jack Cocchiarella (@JDCocchiarella) March 23, 2022
The Accidental Polemicist
I’m sure Ted Cruz is really concerned. Ron who?
Cam
The anti_LGBTQ troll account always defending hateful bigots and attacking allies.
Your troll game is sad and weak.
DarkZephyr
Performative jackassery is certainly done online w/out cameras too. “Ron who”. lol You know damned well who Ron Pearlman is. Nobody’s buying what you’re trying to sell.
The Accidental Polemicist
@DarkZephyr
I’m sorry it went over your head. 🙁
REDBEARD
I so enjoy reading your comments. Trolling on line has become your generation’s attempt at intellectual repartee. So witty (or should I say half-witty?), so droll (troll?), so smug.
Or should I say “The Accidental Polemicist” who?
The Accidental Polemicist
@REDBEARD
“I so enjoy reading your comments.”
Thank you
Sotzume
Comrade…how are things in Stalingrad today?
Den
Many, many more people know who Ron is than will ever know, or care, who you are. Whether or not his statement is insightful or valid in any way is another question entirely. One that perhaps you are too dull to ask.
Ron’s post is, however, definitely on point. Cruz is a sniveling hypocrite and pox on American Democracy.
barryaksarben
LOL again for the idiots like this guy TED CRUZ WILL NEVER BE PRESIDENT. ALl thes gop horrible men like Scott and Rubio and Cruz are so insanely ambitious they dont see how they are truly perceived by the vast majority of voters. NOT GOOD
Eternal.Cowboy
I am absolutely looking forward to Cruz humiliating himself again by running for president.
Bonerboy
Look, he gets humiliated again and again and again. Trump insulted his wife and his father and then Cruz turned around and licked his boots. That is the kind of man The Accidental Polemicist cheers for? Ew.
Mister P
Perlman and AOC are awesome.
THAT Steve
AOC has a valid point but I can read a paperback or trade three times without hurting the spine or folding the edges at all. I even use receipts as bookmarks because the commercial ones bow a book too much for my taste. Then again, it’s part of my OCD, not performative jackassery.
Thad
Unlike Cruz, Trump, Blackburn, et al., you do read. Kudos.
barryaksarben
Obviously you are a reader unlike the vast majority of the gop deplorables. I mean lets be real there is no other word that fits them so well and that is why it angers them so
shva08
Former (then) Senator Al Franken: “I like Ted Cruz more than most of my other colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz.”
The Accidental Polemicist
AOC is special. She has single-handedly eliminated the need for dumb blond jokes.
Bless her heart.
Cam
Wow, so far the right wing troll account has used an article about hateful bigot Ted Cruz as an excuse to attack a woman in Congress.
Smart women REALLY enrage the right wing trolls.
Kangol2
The truth is AOC runs rings around idiotic Repugs. The more they call her stupid the more she shows what morons they are. Most of them couldn’t hold a candle to her even if they had blowtorches in both hands!
The Accidental Polemicist
@Kangol2
Brett Kavanaugh – seven separate FBI background investigations over 26 years
Christine Blasey Ford – zero FBI background investigations
The other woman claimed that Kavanaugh lead gang rapes in high school which no one could collaborate.
Tara Reade’s story has never wavered and you know it. And yet, you still voted for Biden.
white-queer-african
And here’s thinking. Teddy boi wants to try and be the president of the US of A again ( eyes roll)! What a dumb crackhead. Having been following the confirmation hearings i am not sure who is trying to upstage who between Cruz and Howley? And then there is Ms Lindsay. What a joke!
Polaro
I really dislike the repugnant and smug Ted Cruz. Carry on Mr. Perlman.
The Accidental Polemicist
@Polaro
And Perlman’s post isn’t “repugnant and smug”?
Fahd
Jackson seems like a perfect candidate for the job. I have been really impressed with her answers in the portions of the hearings that I have heard. What a contrast from Trump’s nominees!
Whether they could get to her or not (they can’t – she’s too smart for them), the Republican clowns in the Senate are going to grandstand. They are a discredit to the institution of the Senate, and they should be voted out (Hawley should be tried as a traitor), but as Perlman says they are appealing to their know-nothing bases.
And, perhaps with the exception of the Queerty commentator Accident… , who doesn’t enjoy Ted Cruz being insulted?
God help America!
Caddy4J
But it was okay to bash Kavanaugh and Barrett. I just don’t get you guys. Every time you don’t like what people say, you go on this whiny, immature rant. It called procedures and @Cam you’re irrelevant, very redundant, but most of all, (I’ll use your famous line.) Sad and weak. Your a tool. It’s time for you to crawl back under that rock.
blackgrl71
Well considering that the GOP essentially cheated the SCOTUS Confirmation process, and – this is a big one, NEITHER were found qualified enough by the American Bar Association. Also, Twitter isn’t nearly as legit as an actual Senator, at a SCOTUS Confirmation hearing, storming out in the middle of questioning, in an inappropriate and completely unprofessional tantrum, so your “comparison” is spot on…
The Accidental Polemicist
@blackgrl71
Wrong.
“…NEITHER were found qualified enough by the American Bar Association. ”
“American Bar Association: Judge Amy Barrett is “Well-Qualified” to serve on Supreme Court.”
“The ABA Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary on Friday gave its highest rating of well-qualified to Kavanaugh, a 53-year-old judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.”
Why are you lying?
heath0043
The difference is that there were women actually accusing Kavanaugh of assault. With Barrett she, many times in her career, told and talked about the fact that religion should be part of the government and her law decisions. That gives the right to be harder on them since both cases really mattered. Cruise and others asked questions that had nothing to do with nothing other than catering to their ignorant base.
The Accidental Polemicist
@heath0043
“The difference is that there were women actually accusing Kavanaugh of assault.”
The woman did not know where the assault took place. She didn’t know how she got to the party, how she got home, when it was, who was there, etc. The one person she named, stated she never attended the party.
Tara Reade accused Joe Biden of sexual assault.
Perhaps you shouldn’t have voted for Joe Biden. Right?
Kangol2
Multiple women accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct, not just one. And their stories didn’t change dramatically like Tara Reade, who initially praised Joe Biden as a boss. Try harder, Active Polemicist.
The Accidental Polemicist
@Kangol2
Brett Kavanaugh – seven separate FBI background investigations over 26 years
Christine Blasey Ford – zero FBI background investigations
The other woman claimed that Kavanaugh lead gang rapes in high school which no one could collaborate.
Tara Reade’s story has never wavered and you know it. And yet, you still voted for Biden.
GayEGO
Ted Cruz should move to Cancun, they won’t listen to what he says, a bunch of hooey!
blackgrl71
Watching her handle the blatantly racist, sexist, and just generally stupid line of questioning from the GOP, was akin to watching 60s Civil Rights’ activists training to prepare for a “sit-in,” knowing they’d face verbal (and physical) abuse, while the GOP resembled Gerorge Wallace. When she eventually sits on that Bench, I’d like to see her channel a little of that Act-Up righteousness.
The Accidental Polemicist
@blackgl171
George Wallace was a rabid, racist Democrat.
Wallace opposed desegregation and supported the policies of “Jim Crow” during the Civil Rights Movement, declaring in his 1963 inaugural address that he stood for “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever”.
Just.my.opinion
I like the idea that I read today that everyone in Congress (or wanting to be) should be questioned for three days to see if they are fit for the job. Most of the people currently in Congress certainly would not have passed.
Thad
Many of us have elections this November where we can decide who is fit to be Senator. Pennsylvania especially has choices.
scotty
That’s the beauty of the Beast.