Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) Bashes a City Resolution Condemning Antisemitism and Anti-Asian Racism

In response to the rise in COVID-related hate crimes, the city of San Antonio passedd a resolution against using racialized speech when referencing COVID, in an effort to reject scapegoating. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) called it “NUTS,” and accused the San Antonio city council of being “triggered,” amplifying a tweet from a right-wing talk show host who describes the resolution as “a Gestapo or Soviet move.”

The resolution Cruz labeled “nuts” included the following statements:

“Extremists are taking advantage of COVID-19 to spread their hateful ideologies, including antisemitism, racism, Islamophobia, and Sinophobia” 

“COVID-19 is a public health issue, not a racial, religious or ethnic one, and the deliberate use of terms such as ‘Chinese virus’ or ‘Kung Fu virus’ to describe COVID-19 only encourages hate crimes and incidents against Asians and further spreads misinformation at a time when communities should be working together to get through this crisis”

“This is NUTS. SA City Council behaving like a lefty college faculty lounge, triggered by Chick-fil-A & the words ‘Wuhan virus.’ If they want to investigate someone, start with NYT & CNN who both repeatedly (and rightly) referred to it as ‘the Chinese coronavirus.’”