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Ted Cruz And Kaitlan Collins Clash On Air Over Charlie Kirk Killing

Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-Texas) interview with journalist Kaitlan Collins descended into farce as Cruz claimed the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk underlined a “left-wing problem” with political violence.

The Republican senator continued the partisan messaging on Tuesday’s edition of CNN’s “The Source,” following in the footsteps of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, among many other right-wingers, in blaming “the left” for America’s growing political violence problem. (Even Trump’s own DOJ found that the far-right commits more political violence than the left.)

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But Cruz appeared to go further to make the case against liberals and leftists by claiming that a man who allegedly shot two Democratic lawmakers and their families in June was not actually a conservative but “a deranged lunatic.”

Vance Boelter, the suspect in the fatal shootings of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, stopped at four homes of Minnesota state legislators before ultimately fleeing under police gunfire. All of the targets were Democrats.

Boelter also worked as a pastor preaching against abortion.

In the CNN interview, Cruz argued Kirk’s alleged shooter was motivated by far-left beliefs and “transgenderism.”

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When Collins contended that officials are still working to determine the motive, the interview started to come off the rails.

“We don’t have a motive yet, we don’t know yet, we’re still waiting,” Collins said.

“We don’t have a motive yet? Really? That’s CNN’s position? He just happened to fire the gun in celebration,” Cruz said, mockingly.

Kirk was shot while speaking with students at Utah Valley University on Sept. 10. Tyler Robinson, the alleged 22-year-old shooter, was charged with aggravated murder on Tuesday. Robinson was also charged with felony discharge of a firearm and obstructing justice.

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The indictment of Robinson includes several texts he allegedly sent his roommate in the aftermath of the attack. “I had enough of his hatred. Some hate can’t be negotiated out,” one of the messages read. Kirk was known for making racist, sexist, transphobic and nationalist comments on college campuses.

In the interview, Cruz pushed back when Collins said “law enforcement hasn’t laid out a direct motive. They’ve laid out a lot of evidence here of the messages and what has been said.”

“They said he was a left-wing activist who hated Charlie Kirk,” Cruz replied.

The pair then engaged in a heated back-and-forth, repeatedly talking over one another, until Collins said: “Senator, I’m the one asking questions here.”

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Cruz went on to hammer home his overarching point, claiming that “it is the left that overwhelmingly celebrates” political violence, dismissing Collins’ attempts to highlight the murders of Hortman and her husband.

He called their alleged killer a “deranged lunatic” who was not “a right-wing assassin acting on a political motive.”

“There are deranged lunatics who attack people both right and left. But if you look at murders carried out for political agendas, they are overwhelmingly on the left,” Cruz told Collins.

According to a study from the National Institute of Justice Journal that has since been removed from its website, the majority of threats and political violence in recent years have come from the right in the U.S.

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The analysis found that politically motivated murders committed by right-wing actors far outstripped those committed by either left-wing actors or Islamist extremists in the U.S.

Watch part of the fractious exchange between Cruz and Collins below.