The father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested Friday that President Barack Obama is a practicing Muslim and slammed “RINOs” for not backing his son’s efforts to defund the Affordable Care Act.
Rafael Cruz made the remarks at a Republican dinner near Denver. A two-minute clip of the speech was posted on the liberal blog ColaradoPols.com, which shared a longer excerpt of the remarks with Politico.
A Cuban immigrant and a pastor, Cruz claimed that Obama has pledged to “side with the Muslims” if “the winds shift,” prompting a reaction from an audience member.
“He is Muslim,” shouted a woman.
“[Sen. John] McCain couldn’t say that because it wasn’t politically correct,” Cruz responed. “It is time we stop being politically correct!”
He also said that the Affordable Care Act denies and rations coverage for elderly patients while claiming that the law includes “suicide counseling.”
“As a matter of fact, one of the things in Obamacare is that for the elderly, every five years you must have end-of-life counseling,” Cruz said. “Translation: suicide counseling.”
When talk turned to his son’s recent 21-hour talkathon on the Senate floor, Cruz blasted Republicans for voting with Democrats.
“What is sad is the RINOs who went running to vote with Harry Reid,” he said, according to Politico. “I know I am in a Republican Party meeting. If you want to throw tomatoes at me, throw tomatoes at me, but unfortunately, you cannot say that the Republican Party is without blame. We have too many RINOs in the Republican Party.”
The term “RINO” stands for “Republican in name only.”
A spokeswoman for Sen. Cruz emphasized to Politico that the remarks came in “Mr. Cruz’s speech.”
“Senator Cruz has been in D.C. fully focused on the effort to defund Obamacare,” she said.
It wasn’t the first time the elder Cruz made incendiary remarks before a conservative audience. During a speech in August at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, he argued that “homosexual marriage” is a ploy to supplant God with government. In that same fiery speech, he also claimed that the Affordable Care Act will deny treatment to elderly patients.
