During a Senate Judiciary Committee on “ghost guns” (firearms made at home that lack a serial number) on Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) tried to change the subject to a debate about police funding.
“If you don’t support abolishing the police, why do you keep voting for nominees who advocate abolishing the police?,” Cruz asked his Democratic colleagues, referring to Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke, whom President Biden has nominated to run the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) responded to Cruz’s attempted diversion by telling him his words were “a complete distortion of [Gupta’s and Clarke’s] positions” before adding that “we’re not here to talk about those nominees. If you want to stay, we can do it at the end of the hearing, but right now we’re gonna move on.”
Cruz was next seen getting up and walking out of the room, though he later said he had to attend another overlapping committee meeting.
This story has been updated to include Cruz’s explanation for leaving the hearing.
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