Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said Thursday he didn't think anyone in history had ever been afraid of Chris Cuomo, a response to the CNN host's suggestion that Cruz feared coming on the network to defend his stance on gun rights.
Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) with The Federalist's Ben Domenech, Cruz spoke out strongly against Democrats' calls for gun control, saying their answer was always to strip away Second Amendment rights.
Domenech joked at one point whether Cuomo had tweeted in the past five minutes Cruz was afraid to come on "New Day" and talk about gun rights.
"You know, I am quite certain in the history of the universe, nobody has ever been afraid of Chris Cuomo," Cruz said, drawing laughter.
Cuomo had suggested last week Cruz and other Republicans were afraid to come on his network, leading Cruz to fire back he had spoken with CNN for 15 minutes about gun measures and the network had not aired it.
Cruz also called Wednesday night's town hall a "CNN informercial."
The town hall gave students, teachers and families connected to the Stoneman Douglas mass shooting last week to ask questions about gun control measures. Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and National Rifle Association spokeswoman Dana Loesch were among the participants and they took sharp-edged questions that called for gun control and blasted the NRA.
Cruz criticized the forum and noted one of the biggest cheer lines was when the audience reacted to the idea of banning every semiautomatic rifle sold in America.
"The left's answer is always, always, always strip the Second Amendment rights from law-abiding citizens," Cruz said. "Here's one of the many problems. It doesn't work."
Cruz said if you wanted crime to take off, "disarm the law-abiding citizens."
Cuomo has taken a stridently pro-gun control stance in his coverage, spreading a debunked story about being able to buy an AR-15 in five minutes with an expired ID and declaring former Florida Rep. David Jolly (R.) to be "on the right side" because of his support for gun control measures.