It's not often that Ted Cruz finds himself having to mend fences with the right.
The conservative ideologue and potential 2024 presidential contender appeared on Fox News Channel's"Tucker Carlson Tonight" show Thursday to apologize for describing the Jan. 6 insurrection as"a violent terrorist attack on the Capitol" a day earlier, the eve of its anniversary.
But Cruz's capitulation to outrage from the Republican Party's far right flank underscores the power it increasingly holds over leading GOP politicians and the influence held by conservative TV hosts like Carlson, who reach millions of viewers every night. And it shows how lawmakers like Cruz, who was once considered one of his party's most conservative voices, now face pressure from a new guard of hard-liners who swept into power with the backing of Trump's base.
"Shame on Ted Cruz," said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a first-term lawmaker and Trump supporter who has peddled numerous conspiracy theories and was recently barred from Twitter for her anti-vaccination comments. She called Cruz's initial comments"irresponsible" and disrespectful of"MAGA patriots."Cruz, along with other Republican Party leaders, had previously described the events of Jan. 6 as"terrorism" without blowback.
He went on to say"anyone who commits a crime of violence should be prosecuted, and that anyone who violently assaults a police officer should go to jail for a very long time. That's true whether you're right wing, left wing or you got no wings whatsoever." But many, especially on the right, have resisted attempts to label violence as terrorism, especially when it is committed by white people.
Carlson and others have noted that no one in the assault has been charged with"terrorism." But there is no federal law that provides for an explicit charge of domestic terrorism.
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