Cruz dismisses allegations against Sessions: 'Democrats accuse anyone they disagree with of being a racist'

Ted Cruz.
(Image credit: Screenshot/Fox News via Mediaite)

During an appearance Wednesday on Fox News, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) defended attorney general nominee Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) against allegations of racism by noting the Democratic Party's past affiliations with racist organizations. "The Democrats are the party of the Ku Klux Klan. You look at the most racist — you look at the Dixiecrats, they were Democrats who imposed segregation, imposed Jim Crow laws, who founded the Klan," Cruz said, referring to a rebel faction of the Democratic Party formed in 1948. "The Klan was founded by a great many Democrats."

Cruz's remarks came one day after Senate Republicans voted to silence Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for reading a letter from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow Coretta Scott King that accused Sessions of attempting "to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters." King wrote the letter in 1986 urging the Senate not to approve Sessions' nomination to a federal judgeship.

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