Ted Cruz just joined Trump’s racist NFL feud with a disgusting comment

Senator Ted Cruz — the slimy Texas Republican who was roundly humiliated and defeated by a conman television star during the 2016 Republican primaries — is a perfect specimen of the sort of bottomfeeding, parasitic creatures the petri dish that is the modern GOP can produce.

Even by Republican standards, Cruz is remarkably devoid of anything even vaguely resembling a spine. During the campaign, Donald Trump insulted the physical appearance of Cruz’s wife and implied his father helped kill JFK, and yet still Cruz continues to support the president’s destructive agenda.

Cruz’s penchant for aiding and aping his party leader also apparently extends to mimicking his inane rhetoric.

In recent days, Trump has reignited his petty NFL feud by disinviting the Super Bowl-winning Philadelphia Eagles from the White House after some team members voiced their intention to skip the meet and greet. The players in question drew issue with Trump’s repeated attacks on NFL players who choose to kneel during the national anthem to protest police brutality.

Trump has consistently misrepresented the kneeling controversy for political gain. It’s explicitly about the unfair abuse and killing of people of color by law enforcement, but the president pretends it’s about NFL players intentionally disrespecting the entire country and specifically the military. It allows Trump to pretend to be patriotic, while also allowing him to insult black athletes, which in turn excites his bigoted base.

Now, it appears Ted Cruz wants in on the racist dog whistle action. Alan He of CBS reports that Cruz remarked on the kneeling controversy to Shanica Johnson, also of CBS.

“To see incredibly wealthy, privileged athletes who are driving Lamborghinis, who are living in mansions refusing to show respect for the flag…disrespecting our soldiers sailors airmen & marines… I think that’s unfortunate, I think it’s wrong,” said Cruz.

The entire statement is dripping in so much bad faith that you could slip on it. To say that athletes who have managed to obtain well-deserved success should be muzzled and have no right to speak out against injustice is anathema to everything this country is supposed to stand for. We are supposed to encourage the powerful to use their platforms to help others.

The comments also tie into a long-running racist trope that says that people of color don’t deserve success and should be thankful for whatever they do have and in turn keep any complaints to themselves. It’s a hateful, regressive line of thinking, and Cruz owes all of these players an apology.

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