Ted Cruz called the Planned Parenthood shooter a 'transgendered leftist activist'

At a Sunday campaign stop in Iowa, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) called Friday's shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado "horrific," but also slammed "some vicious rhetoric on the left blaming those who are pro-life," The Texas Tribune reports.

The suspected gunman, Robert Dear, reportedly hinted at a motive after police apprehended him in Colorado Springs on Friday by saying "no more baby parts," according to an anonymous law enforcement official. When a reporter mentioned those reports to Cruz, he pushed back, arguing that we don't know enough about the gunman yet to make a judgment call about his political beliefs.

"It's also been reported that he was registered as an independent and a woman and a transgendered leftist activist," the presidential hopeful said. "If that's what he is, I don't think it's fair to blame on the rhetoric on the left. This is a murderer."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Cruz was referring to voting records that show that a Robert Dear with the birth year the same as the suspect was registered to vote as a woman in Hartsel, Colorado, as recently as 2014, according to BuzzFeed News. As for Dear's political beliefs, a New York Times profile described him as "generally conservative but not obsessed with politics," based on an interview with his ex-wife, Pamela Ross.

A campaign spokesman told the Times that Cruz was not making definitive claims about Dear's identity, but rather pointing out that people should not draw conclusions based on a story that's still developing.