When a New York Times reporter on Sunday accused Sens. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) of political posturing with their statements against white supremacists, Cruz had a response ready.
Both Cruz and Rubio called the attack over the weekend in Charlottesville, Va, where someone plowed their car into pedestrians amid clashes between white supremacists and counter-protest groups, an act of terrorism by white supremacists.
Eric Lipton, an investigative reporter for the Times, went on Twitter to offer his take on the conservative senators' sincerity, writing that they were just "posturing" for the 2020 presidential election.
Sorry to be cynical, but most of all Rubio and Ted Cruz to me seem mostly to be doing a tremendous job of posturing for 2020.
— Eric Lipton (@EricLiptonNYT) August 13, 2017
Cruz took aim at Lipton for his decision to target two Cuban Americans, and also got a shot in about the Times' past reporting on left-wing dictatorships.
Gosh, you're right. Because Nazis & the Klan have such love for Cuban-Americans. If only we worked for a paper that shilled for Stalin.... https://t.co/PBsFqauXq2
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 14, 2017
Cruz was referring to Times reporter Walter Duranty, who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932 for his reporting on the Soviet Union. It was later found that he denied widespread famine in the USSR, notably in Ukraine, which Cruz pointed out when others criticized his response to Lipton.
I know it's hard to understand. Too many schools don't teach NYT's shameful history covering up Soviet atrocities: https://t.co/q3mtRxX2BG https://t.co/4yaGty7yhX
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 14, 2017
Twitter responses hailed Cruz's tweet after he sent it.
Rekt
— Comfortably Smug (@ComfortablySmug) August 14, 2017
Epic ownership right there. https://t.co/3zfCCFphYQ
— Brad Slager- AKA 'Brad Eagle', formerly 'The Crow' (@MartiniShark) August 14, 2017
Ted Cruz undefeated twitter smackdown champion. https://t.co/ad4wWxervF
— Kayla Elizabeth (@VixenRogue) August 14, 2017
Referring back to a similar incident with sports publication Deadspin, people referred to Cruz "owning" the Times' in a similar way.
https://twitter.com/tay_dawson/status/896943206658715648
https://twitter.com/danieltobin/status/896923770685841408
Before his tweet, Cruz condemned the Charlottesville attack and called for a terror investigation by the Justice Department.
"The Nazis, the KKK, and white supremacists are repulsive and evil, and all of us have a moral obligation to speak out against the lies, bigotry, anti-Semitism, and hatred that they propagate," Cruz said in a statement. "Having watched the horrifying video of the car deliberately crashing into a crowd of protesters, I urge the Department of Justice to immediately investigate and prosecute this grotesque act domestic terrorism."
Rubio had a similar response to the events in Charlottesville.
Very important for the nation to hear @potus describe events in #Charlottesville for what they are, a terror attack by #whitesupremacists
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) August 12, 2017