Senator Ted Cruz has called riots 'organized terror attacks' and slammed Black Lives Matter protesters as 'avowed Marxists'...
Senator Ted Cruz has called riots 'organized terror attacks' and slammed Black Lives Matter protesters as 'avowed Marxists' looking to disrupt the 'Western-prescribed nuclear family structure' ahead of a hearing on Antifa and political violence later today.
'These violent riots are not spontaneous, nor are they mere coincidences. Instead, the evidence suggests they are organized terror attacks designed to instill fear and tear down the fundamental institutions of government,' Cruz told Fox News.
The Texas Republican also blasted Democrat officials for 'letting their cities burn' and reinforced his plan for citizens to be able to sue cities if their property is damaged during riots.
His comments come ahead of a Senate hearing Tuesday to investigate the 'political violence' he said is being carried out by the extreme left group Antifa.
Senator Ted Cruz has called riots 'organized terror attacks' and slammed Black Lives Matter protesters as 'avowed Marxists' looking to disrupt the 'Western-prescribed nuclear family structure' ahead of a hearing on Antifa and political violence later today
Cruz slammed what he called 'violent anarchists and Marxists' for 'trying to tear down our society' as violence in the streets of America has entered another month.
'Across the country, we're seeing horrific violence, we're seeing our country torn apart. Violent anarchists and Marxists are exploiting protests to transform them into riots and direct assaults on the lives and safety of their fellow Americans,' he told Fox News.
'We're seeing growing violence, physical assaults... we're seeing radicals trying to tear down our society.'
Cruz said Americans have the right to peacefully protest but do not have the right to destroy cities.
'You have a right to protest, I have a right to protest peacefully. We have a right to speak our minds - the First Amendment protects that,' he said.
The Texas Republican blasted Democrat officials for 'letting their cities burn' in an interview with Fox News (above) and reinforced his plan for citizens to be able to sue cities if their property is damaged during riots
'What you and I don't have the right to do is to hurt somebody else, to physically assault someone else, to firebomb police cars, to loot and destroy a small business, to murder a police officer and sadly we've seen all of that in riots across our country.'
As well as blaming the violence on Antifa, Cruz also laid into Black Lives Matter organizers who he said are 'pursuing a radical agenda'.
'These are violent leftists, many of them are anarchists, some of them are affiliated with Antifa the national terrorist organization, some are affiliated with the group called Black Lives Matter which is founded by and is run by open Marxists - people who are calling for a Marxist government in the United States,' he said.
'We're seeing radicals whose objective is what's going on in Portland every night - they're assaulting the federal courthouse and trying to burn it down.'
Cruz added: 'The actual organization denominated Black Lives Matter was created by avowed Marxists pursuing a radical agenda including defunding police departments across the country and that agenda, if implemented, would have the consequence of a great many more Black lives being lost.'
He said he believes the statement 'black lives matter' is 'unquestionably true' but the organization Black Lives Matter has called for people to 'disrupt' the 'Western-prescribed nuclear family structure'.
His comments come ahead of Tuesday's 'The Right of the People Peaceably to Assemble: Protecting Speech by Stopping Anarchist Violence' Senate hearing.
Cruz, who chairs the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, called the hearing last week to investigate groups such as Antifa and their role in the violence taking place in US cities.
'The hearing will assess who is driving the violence, who is driving the assaults, who is driving the fires, who is driving the explosions, who is driving the murders, why are they doing so, how are they doing so and what do they hope to achieve through violent acts of terror?' Cruz told Fox News.
Federal agents outside the Mark O. Hatfield US Courthouse in Portland on August 2 after demonstrators lit a fire outside the building
Federal agents sent in by Donald Trump have violently clashed with protesters in recent weeks
Protesters sit on the barricades outside the federal courthouse. Cruz branded BLM organizers 'avowed Marxists pursuing a radical agenda' and planning to 'disrupt' the 'Western-prescribed nuclear family structure'
In his opening statement, Cruz will compare footage of peaceful protests such as those led by Martin Luther King Jr. and the recent events in Portland and other US cities.
Also speaking at the hearing will be Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, journalist Andy Ngo and law professor Jonathan Turley.
The Republican Senator has come out in staunch support of Donald Trump and his controversial tactics of sending in federal troops to US cities in recent weeks.
The president has been accused of stoking further unrest in Portland, Oregon, by deploying federal agents, who have violently clashed with protesters.
'The federal police officers are doing their job of stopping terrorists burning the courthouse to the ground,' Cruz insisted.
Last month, Cruz introduced the RECLAIM Act allowing Americans to sue state and local officials if they withhold law enforcement in the city and private property is damaged as a result.
'If you're injured or if your property is damaged in riots and local officials have made the deliberate decision to withhold police protection then you can sue that city and sue that municipality,' he told Fox News.
'In addition any city that refuses to provide police protection during a riot is denied eligibility for federal funds because what these Democrat mayors and governors are doing is wrong and is endangering lives and it's denying the basic civil rights that every American is entitled to.'
Cruz went as far as to say Democrat leaders are encouraging the chaos by 'mak[ing] the cynical decision not to allow the police officers to actually do their jobs and to protect the physical safety and property and they've ordered pole officers to pull back and they're letting their cities burn.'
He singled out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for calling the federal agents 'stormtroopers' in a recent social media post.
'When Nancy Pelosi calls federal law enforcement officers stormtroopers and that is a term that hearkens back to Nazi Germany, when she wrongfully alleges that they are kidnapping Americans, that is a grotesque lie, and a slander and it endangers the lives of law enforcement,' he said.
'It reflects the very unfortunate political determination that a lot of Democrats have made - that given the choice between standing with innocent Americans or violent terrorists seeking to hurt their fellow citizens, to date too many of them have stood with terrorists.'
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