Skip to main content

Duckworth, veterans fire back at Cruz after 'emasculated military' comments


Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzHillicon Valley: Amazon facing lawsuits alleging racial, gender bias | Senate Commerce panel advances Biden's top science nominee | Colonial Pipeline CEO to testify on Capitol Hill in June McAuliffe ties Youngkin to Trump's objections to 2020 results in new ad Senate Commerce advances Biden's top science nominee MORE (R-Texas) is facing backlash from veterans groups and former service members after he claimed that new promotional videos are pushing a “woke, emasculated military.”

Cruz made the remark on Twitter on Thursday, sharing a video displaying an apparent Russian military advertisement showing images of men with shaved heads doing push-ups and jumping out of a plane.

The video then cuts to an animated story of U.S. Army Cpl. Emma Malonelord discussing her mothers’ wedding, marching for LGBTQ rights and joining the military.

ADVERTISEMENT

“I like to think I’ve been defending freedom from an early age,” Malonelord said in the ad.

Holy crap.



Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea.... https://t.co/8aVFMW98NM — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 20, 2021

“Holy crap. Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea....” the Texas senator wrote.

The tweet immediately sparked backlash, generating so many response tweets that #emasculaTED trended on Twitter, The Washington Post reported.

Sen. Tammy Duckworth Ladda (Tammy) Tammy DuckworthBiden signs anti-Asian hate crimes bill into law Bipartisan Senate bill introduced to give gyms B in relief Duckworth says food stamps let her stay in high school MORE (D-Ill.), a retired Army National Guard lieutenant colonel who lost her legs in combat back in 2004, fired back with her own tweet.

ADVERTISEMENT

“Holy crap. Perhaps a U.S. Senator shouldn't suggest that the *Russian* military is better than the American military that protected him from an insurrection he helped foment?” Duckworth wrote.

“Perhaps he should be thanking these badass women?” Duckworth added in a follow-up tweet that included a picture of female troops outside the U.S. Capitol.

Perhaps he should be thanking these badass women?



(: Bloomberg @business) pic.twitter.com/Y57SeoaYL4 — Tammy Duckworth (@TammyDuckworth) May 20, 2021

Several other critics piled on Cruz’s tweet.

“Ted Cruz attacks a US Army soldier for telling her story, says he prefers Russians,” wrote VoteVets, a liberal political group that advocates for veterans running for office. “Because Ted Cruz is a sedition-loving traitor.”

Ted Cruz attacks a US Army soldier for telling her story, says he prefers Russians. Because Ted Cruz is a sedition-loving traitor. https://t.co/UOveTXSxzk — VoteVets (@votevets) May 20, 2021

That young soldier who you claim "emasculates" our military has more guts and strength of character on her worst day than you've ever had at your best. — Charlotte Clymer ️‍ (@cmclymer) May 20, 2021

It's incredibly frustrating to have a sitting Senator degrading the service of a woman who raised her hand, volunteered, and is currently serving honorably. — Lethality Jane (@LethalityJane) May 20, 2021

ADVERTISEMENT

So a sitting senator is degrading a US Army corporal for cheap political points while also spreading Russian propaganda? Neat. pic.twitter.com/lzmert1Baj — *insert clever name here* (@Spark898) May 20, 2021

Also, I'm not sure you want to be calling the military "emasculated" after you rolled over for the man who mocked you as Lyin' Ted, called your wife ugly, and said your father killed JFK. — Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) May 20, 2021

ADVERTISEMENT

Cruz, however, appeared unbothered by the backlash.

“I’m enjoying lefty blue checkmarks losing their minds over this tweet, dishonestly claiming that I’m ‘attacking the military,’ ” he wrote late Thursday. “ Uh, no. We have the greatest military on earth, but Dem politicians & woke media are trying to turn them into pansies. The new Dem videos are terrible.”

I’m enjoying lefty blue checkmarks losing their minds over this tweet, dishonestly claiming that I’m “attacking the military.”



Uh, no. We have the greatest military on earth, but Dem politicians & woke media are trying to turn them into pansies.



The new Dem videos are terrible. https://t.co/19pYGa8cYk — Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 21, 2021

The Post noted that the original TikTok video that Cruz shared has undetermined origins. The handle that originally posted the clip, @thoughtcrimes_, has been deactivated and its videos were removed.

ADVERTISEMENT

The video initially surfaced on Twitter when a Dutch user who frequently posts far-right content shared it, according to Alexander Reid Ross, a doctoral fellow for the United Kingdom-based Center for Analysis of the Radical Right.

Ross told the Post that the clip had been surfacing on channels that promote fascist and antisemitic beliefs.

“Ted Cruz is obviously sharing this video that I’ve seen bouncing around some of the most violent and anti-American Telegram accounts that I monitor,” he said. “It just struck me as odd.”

Cruz's office did not respond to the Post’s inquiry about whether he vetted the source of the video before sharing it.

The Army released the animated recruitment videos earlier this month to highlight “the deeply emotional and diverse origin stories” of five different soldiers.

"Research tells us that young people today see the Army as a 'distant star' — a place requiring a nearly superhuman level of discipline with little relevance to their daily lives," said Maj. Gen. Alex Fink, chief of the Army Enterprise Marketing Office. "Similarly, youth don't necessarily connect with those who serve or see common ground in terms of interests, abilities, and goals. 'The Calling' shatters these misperceptions by showing that Soldiers are all of us: real people with hopes, dreams, fears, aspirations, families, friends, and obstacles to overcome."

However, the video featuring Malonelord was flooded with so much negativity that the comment section was disabled.

“Beginning May 12 we started noticing a significant uptick in negative commentary,” Laura DeFrancisco, public affairs chief for the Army Enterprise Marketing Office, told Army Times. “The comments violated our social media policy and were not aligned with Army values. Out of respect for the safety and wellbeing of our soldiers and their families, we have disabled the comments.”

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wray: FBI deemed Jan. 6 attack domestic terrorism

FBI Director Christopher Wray said Tuesday that officials have classified the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by former President Trump Donald TrumpProsecutors focus Trump Organization probe on company's financial officer: report WHO official says it's 'premature' to think pandemic will be over by end of year Romney released from hospital after fall over the weekend MORE's supporters as domestic terrorism. "That attack, that siege, was criminal behavior, plain and simple, and it’s behavior that we, the FBI, view as domestic terrorism," Wray told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Wray said the FBI has received more than 270,000 tips from Americans that have helped the bureau identify the numerous people who allegedly participated in the attack. ADVERTISEMENT "Citizens from around the country have sent us more than 270,000 digital media tips. Some have even taken the painful step of turning in their friends or their family members,” ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Matt Gaetz's ex-girlfriend to cooperate with federal authorities in sex trafficking investigation

Washington (CNN) Federal authorities investigating alleged sex trafficking by GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz have secured the cooperation of the congressman's ex-girlfriend, according to people familiar with the matter. The woman, a former Capitol Hill staffer, is seen as a critical witness, as she has been linked to Gaetz as far back as the summer of 2017, a period of time that has emerged as a key window of scrutiny for investigators. She can also help investigators understand the relevance of hundreds of transactions they have obtained records of, including those involving alleged payments for sex, the sources said. News of the woman's willingness to talk, which has not been previously reported, comes just days after the Justice Department formally entered into a plea agreement with Joel Greenberg, a one-time close friend of Gaetz whose entanglement with young women first drew the congressman onto investigators' radar. CNN reported last week that investigators were pressing for the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Biden Wants to Hire 87,000 Additional IRS Agents to Go After Wealthy Tax Dodgers

The Biden administration is proposing hiring 87,000 new workers for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), effectively doubling the agency’s size, as part of a plan to beef up enforcement efforts and find billions of dollars in tax revenues that go uncollected each year. Enforcement efforts would primarily target individuals and corporations with higher incomes and profits, the administration has suggested. The hiring, which would be part of President Joe Biden’s overall $80 billion spending plan to increase enforcement efforts at the IRS, would not happen all at once. Instead, it would be carried out in phases, with a 15 percent growth in employment at the agency per year until that 87,000 hiring benchmark is reached. The move would help recoup (and go beyond) some of the employment losses the agency has seen over the past decade, as the IRS has lost more than 33,000 workers over the past decade. The drop in employment at the agency has resulted in fewer audits, particularly for filers w...
Post a Comment
Read more