Cruz: Senate Majority Leader Schumer’s Attacks Were ‘Directly Threatening Justices of the Supreme Court’
(CNS News) — When asked whether Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) 2020 remarks warning two Supreme Court justices they “won’t know what hit them” if they limited abortion were appropriate, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said no, and added that such rhetoric was “wrong” and “dangerous.”
Cruz further said that then-Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s May endorsement of people protesting at justices’ homes was encouraging people to commit a crime. The White House affirmatively urged people to commit a criminal offense, charged Cruz, and the “violence and threats of violence that result was foreseeable and is a direct consequence of their extreme rhetoric.”
At the US Capitol on Thursday, CNS News asked Cruz, “Majority Leader Schumer said publicly in 2020 that Justice Kavanaugh and Justice Gorsuch voted to limit abortion access, that they would ‘release the whirlwind’ and ‘won’t know what hit them.’ Was that appropriate rhetoric for a Senate leader?”
“Of course not, it was directly threatening justices of the Supreme Court,” said Cruz. “It was bullying, and that kind of incendiary rhetoric encouraged the angry protests at the justices’ homes and this deranged lunatic who was arrested this week for attempted murder.”
“Senator Schumer and President Biden both encouraged the extremes in their party to target, politicize, bully, threaten, and intimidate the Supreme Court,” he added, “and it’s profoundly wrong and it’s dangerous.”
CNS News also asked, “Do you think there’s any connection to the Jan. 6 hearings that we’re about to have? Do you think that Republicans should call these Democrats to account much like they’re calling President Trump to account for his rhetoric?”
“I certainly have called for it multiple times and will continue to do so.” Cruz answered. “Jen Psaki at the White House podium, when asked if she would condemn the threatening protesters at the homes of Supreme Court justices, refused to do so and, in fact, affirmatively encouraged them to continue protesting their homes.”
“That is a federal crime to protest at the home of a judge while a judge is considering a case — is a federal crime,” said the senator. “It’s the first time I’m aware of in U.S. history, that a White House has affirmatively urged people to commit a criminal offense, and the violence and threats of violence that result was foreseeable and is a direct consequence of their extreme rhetoric.”
At a pro-abortion rally in 2020, then-Senate Minority Leader Schumer criticized a Louisiana case before the Supreme Court requiring abortionists to have admitting privileges at local hospitals.
Schumer railed against Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, saying, “You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you.”
Schumer’s comments provoked a rare response from Chief Justice John Roberts who rebuked Schumer by name and wrote, “threatening statements of this sort from the highest levels of government are not only inappropriate, they are dangerous.”
After the early May 2022 leak of a draft decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, a decision that would overturn Roe, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki responded to pro-abortion protests occurring outside Supreme Court justices homes.
“The president’s longstanding view has been that violent threats and intimidation of any kind have no place in political discourse,” said Psaki. “And we believe, of course, in peaceful protests.” She continued, “We certainly continue to encourage that outside of judges’ homes and that’s the president’s position.”
Early Wednesday morning, a man was arrested outside of Associate Justice Kavanaugh’s home in Maryland carrying a gun, ammunition, a knife, pepper spray, a screwdriver, zip ties, and other gear. The man was charged with attempted murder of a federal judge and, according to an FBI affidavit, called an emergency telephone number and said he came from California in order to kill a specific Supreme Court Justice. He later told police that he was upset over the Dobbs leak and the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
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