Subcommittee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks as FAA Acting Administrator Daniel Elwell, NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt, and DOT I.G. Calvin Scovel appear before a Senate Transportation subcommittee hearing on commercial airline safety, on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, 3/27/19, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
As Alex Parker wrote Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) took to the Twitter machine to angrily tell Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to shut up about Chicago’s well-documented gun problem earlier this week. In the process, she also tried to blame the city’s gun violence epidemic not on the Democrats who have run the city into the ground, but on … pro-gun rights Republicans.
To briefly recap, here’s what Lightfoot tweeted in response to a Twitter post from Cruz on Labor Day in which he referenced Chicago’s long history of gun violence as evidence that gun control doesn’t work:
When @tedcruz and the @gop dismiss common sense gun policies, they disrespect victims and their families, who deserve to live without pain and fear.
— Lori Lightfoot (@LoriLightfoot) September 3, 2019
Unfortunately for Mayor Lightfoot, Cruz didn’t back down, and later explained his position to her in a Twitter thread:
2/x All five of those cities have had Democratic mayors for decades and aggressive gun control policies—none seems to be working. Your explanation (“blame Indiana!”) doesn’t hold water. There are 27 states with GOP governors. Chicago is not alone in having neighboring red states.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 3, 2019
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4/x Maybe, rather than getting angry when others point out the tragically high murder rate in Chicago, you put aside the partisan talking points & the failed gun-control policies Chicago has pursued for decades. Instead, lock up the violent criminals who are committing murder…
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 3, 2019
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5/x …PREVENT felons & fugitives from illegally buying firearms, and ALLOW law-abiding citizens (who are right now obeying Chicago’s prohibition) to exercise their constitutional right to protect their own lives and their families.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 3, 2019
Cruz also retweeted this tweet from talk show host Joe Pagliarulo, who correctly pointed out that Lightfoot was completely missing the point:
Can you imagine being this disconnected? She thinks she's making a point. She's missing it. Because law-abiding citizens of Chicago — yup I said the city's name — cannot get a gun, the criminals there are the only ones with them. That's the problem. @tedcruz @SenTedCruz https://t.co/kl5ODQfaIn
— Joe Pags Pagliarulo (@JoeTalkShow) September 3, 2019
Lightfoot responded by demanding Cruz get Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to pass an assault weapons ban and universal background checks. She also invited him to take a tour of Chicago with her in order to get him to stop the “dishonest use of our city as a cheap symbol to cover for the GOP’s unwillingness to protect their constituents.”
Cruz didn’t take the bait:
Mayor, the most significant “root cause” is that criminals have all the guns. One place to start is not releasing back to the public, but rather locking up violent, repeat offenders before they murder again: https://t.co/U2Hyn0CSiH https://t.co/v7PLn0ICnc
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 4, 2019
Though the Senator didn’t take the Mayor up on her offer to tour Chicago, he did agree to meet with actress/hacktivist Alyssa Milano to discuss gun rights after schooling her on the correlation between the Bible and the right to use a gun for self-defense.
Stay tuned.
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— Based in North Carolina, Sister Toldjah is a former liberal and a 15+ year veteran of blogging with an emphasis on media bias, social issues, and the culture wars. Read her Red State archives here. Connect with her on Twitter. –
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