Ted Cruz Says Most Violent Criminals Are Democrats and the Media Ignores That Fact

Impact

Republican presidential candidate and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is beginning his week with a series of controversial headlines after claiming the "overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats" in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt. The statement from Cruz, who in many ways has become the face of the tea party movement, follows Friday's attack on a Colorado Planned Parenthood in which a gunman who talked about "baby parts" killed three people and injured several others.

"I would note that this whole episode has really displayed the ugly underbelly of the media," Cruz said on Hewitt's radio show Monday. "You know, every time you have some sort of violent crime or mass killing, you can almost see the media salivating, hoping, hoping desperately that the murderer happens to be a Republican so they can use it to try to paint their political enemies."

Cruz goes on to say the "simple and undeniable" fact of the matter is violent criminals are typically Democrats, though "the media doesn't report that."

"And so the media never reports on any of that," Cruz said, after describing his beliefs that the Democratic Party is seen as soft on crime because they choose to hire "cop killer" lawyers to senior Justice Department positions, while fighting for felons to have the right to vote because criminals "tend to vote Democrat."

On Monday in Iowa, Cruz said the GOP isn't the "condom police," though that's what he says Democratic presidential front-runner and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would like to have voters believe. "Imagine for a second you're Hillary Clinton," Cruz said at the town hall event, according to CNN. "You're trying to think, 'How do I run?' ... So what do you do? You go, 'Ah, ha! Condom police. I'm gonna make up a completely made-up threat and try to scare a bunch of folks into thinking someone's going to steal their birth control ... What nonsense."