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Ted Cruz Went On An Anti-Muslim Rant Because Republicans Are ‘Losing,’ Senator Says
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Sen. Raphael Warnock accused Republicans of “trying to stir up these old demons.”
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) condemned Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for what he called Islamophobic rhetoric against Muslims on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday.
Warnock criticized Cruz after host Jake Tapper asked him to weigh in on Cruz’s response to U.S. Senate candidate and Kansas pastor Adam Hamilton, who said in a resurfaced sermon from 2022 that God’s mercy and salvation could extend to non-Christians, such as Muslims, who sincerely seek God during their earthly lives, even if they don’t explicitly profess faith in Jesus.
Cruz mocked Hamilton’s theology during a campaign event in support of incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall in Wichita, Kansas, on Friday.
“And [Hamilton] says, ‘When we get to heaven, there will be Muslims and we can hug and embrace them and they will be welcomed in heaven.’ It’s an interesting idea,” Cruz said at the event. “We show up there in heaven, first thing you see is Osama bin Laden.”
Warnock, a Baptist, responded to the comments that Cruz, also a Baptist, made.
“It’s bigotry. Pure and simple,” Warnock told Tapper. “Religious bigotry is bigotry, and the Republicans know that they’re losing the argument. It’s just deeply disheartening — though not terribly surprising that they’re trying to stir up these old demons.”
Warnock said that as a Christian pastor, he takes “no comfort in this kind of Islamophobia, in this kind of bigotry of lifting up the worst example of someone who claims a faith ... and trying to conflate that as the faith itself.”
“As an African-American, I know bigotry when I see it. We have to resist it, reject it. America is so much better than this,” he added.
HuffPost has reached out to Cruz’s office for comment.
Listen to Warnock’s comments on Cruz below.
Senator Warnock calls Senator Cruz's remarks about Muslims "bigotry, pure and simple” and says “as a Christian pastor, I take no comfort in this kind of Islamophobia.” pic.twitter.com/FSXO3KJpDb