Republican Ted Cruz insulted Scott Wiener and it backfired

Republican Senator Ted Cruz is no stranger to a political flub, but he probably didn’t expect a Democrat to call him out for being Islamophobic, dumb, and unpopular in one fell swoop.

On March 20, Cruz took to X (formerly Twitter) to try to insult Democratic Senator Scott Wiener, but it backfired spectacularly.
“Wait, I thought this guy was thrown out of Congress for sending naked pictures of himself?” Cruz wrote in response to Wiener calling him out for bad behavior.

Cruz’s remarks quickly received a “readers added context” warning, pointing out that a completely different politician was caught up in the sexting scandal he referenced.

Wait, I thought this guy was thrown out of Congress for sending naked pictures of himself? https://t.co/qYKjnEsqLj
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 20, 2024

The warning reads, “The sexting scandal related to Rep. Anthony Weiner. Sen. Cruz intentionally made this ‘mistake’ to disparage Scott Wiener, who attended law school with Cruz and is a member of the California State Senate.”

Basically, Cruz was either making a bad-faith post or is so incompetent that even his insults are factually inaccurate.

Truly pathetic, even for Cruz.

This is an incredibly damaging barb because Wiener is one of a few gay members of Congress, and the comment section is now flooded with people calling him a groomer and pedophile — a frequently used anti-LGBTQ+ talking point by people on the far-right.

Not one to take things lying down, Wiener shot back with a hilarious insult about the pair’s time together at Harvard Law School in the ‘90s.

“Ted, remember when we went to law school together & everyone hated you?” he wrote.

Ted, remember when we went to law school together & everyone hated you? https://t.co/C30xAxcdT0
— Senator Scott Wiener (@Scott_Wiener) March 20, 2024

The spat between the two politicians started earlier this month when Wiener called a spade a spade after Cruz opposed Adeel Mangi, a judicial nominee who, if confirmed, would be the first-ever Muslim appeals court, Yahoo News reported.

“This is straight up Islamophobia,” Wiener posted on X. “This nominee is highly qualified. Ted Cruz grilled him about October 7. That’s no different than grilling a Jewish nominee about Israel’s conduct of the war.”

Cruz’s existence in politics is disheartening, but it’s a little easier to swallow that pill when we also get to witness him being insulted so skillfully!