WASHINGTON — In a moment that’s left even his staunchest supporters chuckling uncomfortably, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) urged colleagues during a fiery Senate hearing to unite against “attacking pedophiles”—a head-scratching flub that quickly became the talk of Capitol Hill.

The 54-year-old Republican, known for his sharp-elbowed rhetoric on everything from election denial to border security, appeared to mean the exact opposite, but the gaffe landed like a verbal fumble in the end zone during a packed Judiciary Committee session.

The slip happened Tuesday amid a GOP-led hearing titled “Blue City Chaos and Tragedy: How the Trump Administration is Addressing the Human Cost of Soft On Crime Policies.”

Cruz was railing against what he called Democrat-backed leniency that’s “killing people,” pivoting to a call for bipartisan harmony inspired by Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-N.J.) earlier plea for cross-aisle cooperation on public safety.

“Sen. Booker also said we should have bipartisan agreement. I think that’s a great idea—we should have bipartisan agreement,” Cruz said, warming to his theme.

“How about we all come together and say ‘Let’s stop murders.’ How about we all come together and say ‘Let’s stop rape.’

How about we all come together and say ‘Let’s stop attacking pedophiles.’”

The room went quiet for a beat, but Cruz powered on without missing a step, diving into stats praising President Donald Trump’s crackdown on D.C. crime, including the recent deployment of the National Guard to federalize the Metropolitan Police Department.

No immediate correction came from the senator, who wrapped his remarks by touting how Trump’s interventions have turned the nation’s capital from a “murder-ridden” hotspot into a safer haven.

Requests for Comments

Cruz’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment on the phrasing, but sources close to the senator insist it was a simple mix-up—meant as a rallying cry to halt predators, not defend them.

Still, the timing couldn’t have been more awkward.

Cruz has positioned himself as a fierce Epstein skeptic, demanding last January that Trump “absolutely” declassify files from the late sex offender’s investigation because “we deserve to know who is implicated in abusing children.”

However, earlier this month, he joined most Republicans in voting down a Democratic amendment to a defense bill that would have forced the Justice Department to release all Epstein documents.

House GOP leaders have similarly blocked floor votes on the matter, leaving the files under wraps despite Epstein’s well-documented ties to Trump in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The Ironic Twist

The gaffe rippled quickly online, with critics and comics alike pouncing on the irony of a lawmaker who’s championed child protection bills fumbling the punchline on predators.

It also lands amid Trump’s escalating war on urban crime, including his Tuesday directive to top generals to treat “dangerous” Democratic cities like Chicago, Portland, and Los Angeles as military training grounds.

“We’ll straighten them out one by one,” Trump declared, doubling down on federal interventions that have drawn fire from blue-state mayors as overreach.

For Cruz, who’s eyeing a potential 2026 reelection bid and has leaned hard into Trump’s orbit, the moment is a reminder that even scripted zingers can backfire.

In a chamber where words are weapons, one misplaced verb can turn a tough-guy speech into tomorrow’s meme.

As the hearing’s echoes fade, one thing’s clear: When it comes to pedophiles, the only agreement needed is on stopping them—full stop.

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