Sen. Ted Cruz, recent off the stage on the National Rifle Association’s conference in Houston, sat right down to a sushi dinner that was interrupted on Friday by a fellow Texan who confronted the Republican lawmaker over his hard-line stance on firearms, three days after 21 folks had been gunned down at an elementary college within the state.
The finish of the confrontation noticed the person shouting above safety officers strolling him towards the door.
“Nineteen children died! That’s on your hands! Ted Cruz, that’s on your hands!” he says in video of the incident.
The man, Benjamin Hernandez, informed HuffPost that he was in Houston as a result of his digital promoting firm was livestreaming the protests staged outdoors the NRA conference. When he noticed Cruz stroll into the identical restaurant the place he was having dinner, Hernandez stated, he thought, “Oh, hell no.”
“A couple of days ago, I had caught that clip of Beto [O’Rourke] confronting [Texas Gov. Greg] Abbott, and I wrote something to the effect of, ‘Confront all these hypocritical assholes like Beto did.’ And it’s really easy to tweet, right?” Hernandez informed HuffPost. “But then two days later, Ted Cruz is walking in this space where I am, and it’s like, OK, I have to go talk to him now.”
Although different Republican lawmakers dropped out of the NRA occasion after the taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas, Cruz saved his scheduled look, delivering a speech the place he argued weapons had been to not blame for the lethal incident.
At the restaurant, Hernandez pretended to pose for an image together with his arm round Cruz whereas a pal started surreptitiously recording a video that captured him turning to Cruz to speak about gun coverage after the pretend picture.
“You know, I would encourage you ― I gave about a half-hour speech today at the NRA convention ― I encourage you to watch it,” Cruz could be heard responding.
Hernandez, talking shortly, implores him to clarify his stance on gun management within the wake of the Uvalde taking pictures the place 19 kids and two grownup academics had been killed.
“Background checks ― is that so hard?” he says.
Cruz glances again on the individual filming, showing to comprehend what’s occurring, then tells Hernandez, “OK, you don’t want to listen.” Hernandez then stops talking, permitting Cruz to say that Democrats’ proposals, which he didn’t outline, wouldn’t have stopped the shooter. Eighteen-year-old Salvador Ramos, who died on the scene, waited till his birthday to legally buy two AR-15 rifles and greater than 1,600 rounds of ammunition.
Hernandez then tells Cruz: “You can make it harder for people to get guns in this country. You know that. You know that. But you stand here, you stand at the NRA convention ― it is harder, it is harder when there are more guns to stop gun violence.”
At that time, safety officers place themselves between Cruz and Hernandez, escorting him to the door.
The two-minute video was shared by Indivisible Houston, a progressive activist group, which recognized Hernandez as a board member. Another patron of the sushi restaurant captured the interaction from another angle, as Cruz’s safety started forcibly main Hernandez away.
“The time for civil discourse and debate ― when they allow it, which they don’t ― that’s over, to me,” Hernandez informed HuffPost.
He continued: “It is uncomfortable. Yes, it was uncomfortable for me to go and do that ― that’s not me. My mom was even surprised that I dropped the F-bomb. But this week has had me dropping F-bombs, because I’m just so incensed that they would stand there and not do anything about it.”
He stated what stunned him most about Cruz’s response was how “canned” it appeared ― Cruz had given the identical response about Democratic proposals to a Sky News reporter who pressed him on gun management measures earlier within the week.
“You’re directing me to your 30-minute speech, and you just can’t answer a simple question? Background checks, can’t we start there?”
While a bipartisan group of lawmakers has began working towards a compromise on gun management measures, Congress has largely didn’t cross significant reform within the face of repeated mass shootings over the past decade. A invoice to increase background checks handed the House however is stalled within the Senate, the place it is not expected to pass as a consequence of Republican opposition.
