Senator Ted Cruz speaks at the George H.W. Bush Commemorative Center in Midland, Texas for a campaign stop Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2018. Cruz is on his bus tour campaigning before the mid-term elections. (Mark Rogers/Odessa American via AP)

As my RedState colleague Nick Arama reported this morning, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) are now self-quarantining after learning over the weekend from the American Conservative Union that an attendee of last month’s CPAC event in National Harbor, Maryland tested positive for the Wuhan virus.

Cruz and Gosar both attended the conference. Of his time with the diagnosed individual, Cruz said his “interaction consisted of a brief conversation and a handshake” but that he was not feeling any symptoms, fortunately. Gosar stated he “was with this individual for an extended period of time, and we shook hands several times”, but that he and his staff, thankfully, are so far “asymptomatic.”

Though Cruz is self-quarantining in Texas for the next several days in an effort to monitor his health, that doesn’t mean he’s lost his sense of humor, as indicated by his reply (which we’ll get to in a minute) to a tweet from New Yorker contributor Ben Schwartz:

Interesting. There hasn't been a single Zodiac killing since Ted Cruz went into self-quarantine.

— ben schwartz (@benschwartz_) March 9, 2020

The “Zodiac killer” mention is a reference to memes that became popular during Cruz’s 2016 presidential run about how he is really the infamous Zodiac killer.

Example:

If Ted Cruz isn't the Zodiac killer, then why hasn't he denied it? https://t.co/XTQvCOyMEo @Lukeoneil47 pic.twitter.com/teRoj8JG55

— Esquire (@esquire) February 22, 2016

Cruz has capitalized on the memes by making jokes about them, sometimes at the expense of democratic socialists and other times by perpetuating it.

Case in point, his response earlier today to Schwartz:

This, I cannot dispute. https://t.co/SrxzYB7RIi

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 9, 2020

Heh.

In addition to the Zodiac killer references, people have joked for years that he and former Duke basketball star Grayson Allen were father and son:

The photo America has been waiting for…

Grayson Allen + Ted Cruz = #Twinning 😂

(📷 – @tedcruz) pic.twitter.com/goLRt1aCnf

— NCAA March Madness (@marchmadness) June 16, 2018

There are also the jokes about how he looks like “The Office” actor Kevin Malone:

The best gif of all time pic.twitter.com/OOT66LV1T3

— Jessica Fletcher (@heckyessica) July 30, 2019

There have been other instances of Ted Cruz look-alikes written about on the Internet, which you can scroll through here.

But even in the midst of Cruz trying to keep things light, he’s also tweeting out vital information from the Centers for Disease Control as well as the Dept. of Health and Human Services on steps people can take to protect themselves.

In addition to Cruz and Gosar, Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) learned earlier today of his interaction with the person diagnosed with the Wuhan virus, and is also self-quarantining as a precautionary measure. He, too, says he is not experiencing any symptoms.