Why Ted Cruz Is In Hot Water With The Military

Ted Cruz is arguably one of the most controversial figures in American politics. He's faced backlash for taking a vacation to Cancun while his home state of Texas went without electricity and heat, backing up Donald Trump's false claims of election fraud, and allegdly using the Georgia runoff to raise money for himself, among other controversies. And now he's made enemies in the U.S. military too.

Cruz isn't the only right-wing voice to criticize the Army in recent months, per the BBC. Tucker Carlson turned the military against Fox News when he declared that measures to accommodate women were "out of control." Pentagon and military officials took offense to his rant, in which Carlson derided female soldiers and claimed that Joe Biden was making "a mockery of the U.S. military and its core mission, which is winning wars."

Despite the Fox News pundit's complaints, the U.S. Army has continued to target women in its recruitment, releasing a releasing an ad that centers on active-duty soldier Cpl. Emma Malonelord. The animated video shows the story of who shares that she was "raised by two moms," graduated at the "top of my class," and then found "a way to prove my inner strength" by joining the Army. As the Army Times reported, its comment section had to be turned off after receiving a barrage of criticism and tens of thousands of dislikes.

And Cruz had something to say about Malonelord's story as well.

On May 20, Ted Cruz retweeted a video comparing the animated Army recruitment ad with an apparent "Russian army ad," which showed footage of men shaving their heads, training, and jumping out of a plane. "Holy crap," the senator added. "Perhaps a woke, emasculated military is not the best idea...."

He quickly received backlash for his criticism of the U.S. military, as The Washington Post reported, and #emasculaTED began trending on Twitter. Many were quick to point out his own hypocrisy: "The arbiter of tough masculinity has logged on," one Twitter user wrote alongside a picture of Cruz leaving for Cancun.

Illinois senator Tammy Duckworth, an Army veteran, tweeted a scathing reply: "Perhaps a U.S. Senator shouldn't suggest that the *Russian* military is better than the American military that protected him from an insurrection he helped foment?" 

Ted Cruz also faced criticism from groups like VoteVets, who advocate for military veterans running for office. 

But the senator only doubled down on his comments and said that he "enjoyed" the backlash he was receiving. In a defiant tweet, he said he was "enjoying lefty blue checkmarks losing their minds over this tweet" and denying that he was "attacking the military" itself. "We have the greatest military on earth, but Dem politicians & woke media are trying to turn them into pansies," the Texas senator insisted.