this post was submitted on 21 Feb 2026
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In what appeared to be a moment of misspeaking, anti-LGBTQ+ Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) said in a recent congressional speech, “How about we all come together and say ‘Let’s stop attacking pedophiles’?”

During a congressional hearing on the current president’s actions addressing crime in cities — which seems mostly to be insulting large city mayors, ignoring higher-crime areas in red states, and then sending in armed federal officers against the mayors’ wishes — Sen. Cruz referred to Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) plea for Democrats and Republicans to “come together and have bipartisan agreement.”

“I think that’s a great idea. We should have bipartisan agreement,” Cruz said. “How about we all come together and say, ‘Let’s stop murder’? How about we all come together and say, ‘Let’s stop rape’? How about we all come together and say, ‘Let’s stop attacking pedophiles’?”

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[–] BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today 2 points 22 minutes ago

Just to be clear, ALL MAGAs are Pedophiles, or Pedophile Protectors.

You know another name for a Pedophile Protector?

Pedophile.

[–] yonderbarn@lazysoci.al 4 points 7 hours ago
[–] Cantaloupe@lemmy.fedioasis.cc 20 points 14 hours ago

I can't think of a better way to quell the flames of public outcry!

[–] exaybachae@startrek.website 25 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago) (3 children)

Well, it's technically true. Pedophilia, attraction to children (prepubescent youths), is generally best addressed with acknowledgement, treatment, and management.

Sexual assault, and rape, and predator practices are the crimes identified pedophiles are typically found participating in if their attraction to kids isn't addressed appropriately beforehand.

Ya'll don't really think being attracted to kids is a crime itself do you? Or that there aren't thousands, or tens of thousands, of people out there that are attracted to kids and just don't act on it, or haven't been identified?

Pedophilia, though specific in nature, is a similar subject to mental health in general, in how it's treated by society. As it becomes more acceptable to admit to having mental health conditions, the instances of those conditions leading to dire circumstances dimishes.

Be more proactive, and less reactive.

Note: though it should be clear enough, I do want to specifically state that this message in no way promotes or supports criminal actions taken towards children or knowingly disregarding such actions if the assailants are rich, or any other such nonsense.

Like being tall, or black, or gay, being a pedophile is a state of being, not an action, and people should not be attacked for their state of being, full stop. Crimes they commit are another matter entirely.

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 minutes ago

We don't call people pedophiles unless there's evidence that they've abused children. I shouldn't have to explain that. Playing these semantic word games makes it seem like you're running defense for Ted Cruz, and I assure you he does not deserve that from you.

[–] D_C@sh.itjust.works 18 points 14 hours ago

I saw a documentary about three or four decades ago with a guy who was a paedophile. After watching it I felt bad for him, he basically said "I was never abused. To me it seems natural to think of children as sexual beings. I realise why it is wrong and I will never act on it.
Think of it this way. You may find blondes beautiful, but you don't know why. Now I imagine if everyone else was wanting you dead because you like blondes. That's me. And no one will help me."

He looked for help in many different ways and places, the doctors, therapists, mental health clinics etc etc but they all just kept on reporting him to the police. I think in the end he tried to commit suicide, or he tried to chop his own balls off to stop the urges. It was something extreme. After that he got the help he needed anyways.

I've looked for it a few times but never could find it again. I may be misremembering certain things, but the basics are her knew it was a mental disorder and wanted help. But only got it when things got extreme.
These are the people who should get help.

The ones like that obese orange child rapist should get the noose.

[–] naught101@lemmy.world 17 points 15 hours ago

I don't think that's what Cruz was talking about

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 143 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Same article as September for those curious if Raphael did it again, it's just an old article.

[–] LMurch@thelemmy.club 22 points 20 hours ago (3 children)

I have a feeling he was trying to say, "let's stop calling people pedos". That's the best sane-washing I can do.

Have we seen Cruz's name in the 'Trump Files - featuring Jeffrey Epstein'? Maybe he really is standing up for the Epstein class. He's been known to lick Trump's boots, every now and then.

[–] GuyFawkesV@lemmy.world 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Cruz is a piece of shit but I don’t recall seeing anything about him being the files, so guessing he’s just a bootlicker like you said.

[–] fartographer@lemmy.world 4 points 17 hours ago

It's possible. It's also possible that he just couldn't afford to be in the Trump/Epstein files. Maybe his more affordable version of torturing children and animals is abandoning his dog during a freeze to fly to Cancun and then loudly blaming his children?

[–] Freefall@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

More likely he was going for "let's stop attacking conservatives" and got honest.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 0 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I mean...

“I think that’s a great idea. We should have bipartisan agreement,” Cruz said. “How about we all come together and say, ‘Let’s stop murder’? How about we all come together and say, ‘Let’s stop rape’? How about we all come together and say, ‘Let’s stop attacking pedophiles’?”

Seems pretty clear he had:

Stop pedophiles

In his head, realized he shouldn't say that since he's a spineless Republican and tried to pivot to:

Stop attacking people

And his mouth just said both at the same time meaning he said neither.

The jumble that spilled out doesn't matter, piece of shit that he is, he's a great public speaker. He's not trump or Biden who can't string a sentence together. If he fucks up speaking it's because he realized he was about to say something he couldn't and panicked. So the value is in looking at what would logically have made sense in a debate for him to have said.

It's like GW Bush realizing he didn't want a soundbite saying "shame on me":

There's an old saying in Tennessee - I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can't get fooled again.

But we're overdue for J Cole's plan:

Fool me three times, fuck the peace sign

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 1 points 17 hours ago

Yeah, Cruz is a terrible person and should be in prison, but this was clearly just a slip of the tongue. We should be mad at him about real things.

[–] Klear@quokk.au 1 points 20 hours ago

Thanks. I thought I read this before.

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 28 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

wasn't this awhile ago or did he do it again.

[–] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 20 points 17 hours ago

yeah, I had to check the date and it was in September last year

[–] tonytins@pawb.social 10 points 16 hours ago

My bad. It resurfaced on my feed and I mistook for a new article.

[–] TemplaerDude@sh.itjust.works 15 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Inevitable.

Hope you’re proud of your representation, Texas.

[–] DrDickHandler@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago
[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 29 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

The more time passes the more I realize how widespread the problem of rich and powerful people living under a completely different set of rules has taken effect. They are abusing this situation to a point where they have developed their own subculture and much looser morality standards. They can't even help themselves but let it slip that they think that being a pedophile is considered normal now.

And that's just the tip of the lawlessness and moral depravity iceberg. We've seen on increasing occasions that they don't even care about hiding it anymore because Trump has shown them that there are no consequences.

[–] kn33@lemmy.world 44 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

September 30, 2025

Not that I think it's unimportant, but I wish we'd keep things current here.

[–] tonytins@pawb.social 8 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Oh... No idea how it resurfaced in my feed.

[–] zr0@lemmy.dbzer0.com -5 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

Does it matter? You still did not check the date.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 7 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

person is wrong

Someone points out person is wrong

Person admits they were wrong

Person still attacked by commenters

What do you want from them, ritual self-immolation?

[–] SharkAttak@kbin.melroy.org 5 points 20 hours ago (1 children)
[–] LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

And here I was perplexed, did he do the same blunder again??

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 2 points 16 hours ago

More importantly, nothing was done. A decade or more ago, associating and supporting such things was done, but quietly. Now (or last year) it's openly okay for a Congressperson to say it out loud. That, and saying fascism is fine. We're past the point of warning signs, the house is on fire.

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 7 points 14 hours ago (1 children)
[–] SippyCup@lemmy.world 5 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

No, he's not. He's just that shitty of a person. Nobody likes him enough to invite him to a party. He's actually a step down from Elon.

[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Still in the files, but in the "LET ME IIIINNN!" kind of way.

[–] Lrkn_OPA@lemmy.org 7 points 12 hours ago

Gonna insert a quote about Ted Cruz by none other than Lindsay Graham circa 2016, “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.” - https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/lindsey-graham-jokes-about-killing-ted-cruz-nobody-would-convict-you-a6898206.html

[–] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 38 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago) (2 children)

For the past decade, senator Rafael Edward Cruz, who immigrated here from Canada and who goes by a different name for some reason, continues to be the most shittiest human being to everybody. From dead naming people, to blocking social services, to fleeing Texas when it got too cold, texas being the state he immigrated to.

Yet people keep voting for him.

[–] voxthefox@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 20 hours ago

As a texan, it is crazy he is still a senator, our other senator, Corbyn, is equally as batshit insane but gets cover because Cruz gets all the press for his antics. Last election we were close to getting a democrat to oust Crus (Beto) but then just before the election the shooting happened in Beto's hometown of El Paso and he went off the rails on gun control ,for a Texas democrat at least, which is basically a death kneel in Texas politics unfortunately and he ended up losing by a thin margin. It is unendingly frustrating to see the texas democratic party operate, constantly shooting themselves in the foot, pun intended.

[–] chonglibloodsport@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Edward -> Ted is a pretty common preferred name. It’s very common for people to go by their middle or second name over their first. It’s also very common for Americans with non-English sounding names to adopt a more English-sounding name, whether it be a first name or a last name. For example, lots of Chinese people will have an English name they choose to go by, in addition to their legal Chinese name. And of course many trans people adopt different names post-transition, while not necessarily changing their legal name.

You may be right in your implication that Ted Cruz prefers not to go by his birth name for political reasons. I just don’t like the association because of how it can affect all the people mentioned above. There’s nothing wrong with having a different preferred name from your legal name.

[–] ThunderQueen@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

My last name is spanish, but i pronounce it in public like an english word so that people can find it on lists 🫠

[–] cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Does Texas still prosecute poor people for sex crimes against children? If so, then Texas isn't protecting paedophiles, they're protecting the rich.

Reddit also classifies paedophiles as a protected class and suggesting any violence against them (including saying they should face stiffer penalties/longer prison sentences) is grounds for a ban. It's why they banned me.

Take note of those who defend paedophiles. Then try to act surprised when it comes out they're nonces, too.

[–] Insekticus@aussie.zone 4 points 17 hours ago

Yeah, that's because Spez himself is a kiddy diddler and has filled the Reddit organizational structure with like-minded individuals to help shift the Overton Window and manufacture consent for child molestation; its not just "pedophiles" they're protecting, they're trying to protect the actual child molesters and child rapists.

[–] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 7 points 17 hours ago

They are all terrorists and pedophiles.

[–] orbituary@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 19 hours ago

Article is from Sept 2025, updated October 1. I know this is shocking, but was 4 months ago.

[–] Paranoidfactoid@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago
[–] HorikBrun@kbin.earth 4 points 20 hours ago

Your Freudian slip is showing

[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 1 points 17 hours ago

Why? Have you people ever started? I mean, you're cool with one running your fucked up third world country.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 2 points 20 hours ago

I like Ted Cruz because he's not afraid to tell it like it is