A person in the crowd was heard shouting “he should be shot” during Senator Ted Cruz’s speech at the Republican National Committee’s midterm convention in Dallas on Thursday, as Cruz took swipes at Democrats Zohran Mamdani, Abdul El-Sayed of Michigan and James Talarico of Texas. Cruz used his speech Wednesday to criticize what he described as a growing alliance between communists and Islamists within the Democratic Party, saying in part, "We are witnessing a new and dangerous red-green alliance. Communists and Islamists coming together and sweeping over the Democratic Party.
"Hear me now, Sharia law has no place in America. Sharia law is fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution, and we need to stand together and stop it now. A simple truth: when people tell you who they are, believe them," Cruz said in his speech Thursday night.
"When Hasan Piker says, 'America deserved 9/11,' believe him. When Mamdani says he wants to 'seize the means of production,' he means it. When Abdul El-Sayed says he has a 'obligation' to comply with Sharia law, he means it.
And when James Talarico says he wants to 'dismantle capitalism,' he means it," Cruz said in his speech. El-Sayed has disavowed controversial comments made by streamer Piker about the September 11 attacks. When asked by Fox News about Piker's remarks, El-Sayed said he did not agree with them.
Cruz's remarks were interrupted by a member of the crowd shouting, "HE SHOULD BE SHOT!" It is immediately unclear to Newsweek at the time of publication whether Cruz heard the shouts as he was delivering his speech. Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell of Michigan reacted to the moment on X on Thursday, saying, "There aren’t even words for how chilling and disturbing this is. Threats of political violence are dangerous, unacceptable, and have no place in our democracy.
I pray for the safety of all my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. This is clear hate, and we must stand up to it wherever and whenever we see it." Craig Agranoff, political professor at Florida Atlantic University, told Newsweek on Thursday, "it is concerning." Agranoff added, "One person yelling that after Cruz named Mamdani, El-Sayed and Talarico does not mean the whole room agreed with it, and Cruz does not appear to have engaged it. Still, the fact that it was audible and repeated is a problem."Political violence talk has become too casual on both sides, and moments like this feed the sense that opponents are enemies rather than rivals.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
