Texas Senator Ted Cruz said Friday that he agrees with those who view attendees of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as "dangerous radicals" and promised that the U.S. would see a red "tsunami" in the November midterm elections.
"It occurs to me that the Biden FBI believes this is a room of dangerous radicals," Cruz said while delivering remarks at CPAC in Dallas. "And you know what? They're right. There is nothing more dangerous to a bunch of power-hungry, abusive, totalitarian nimwits than a free and empowered and energized American people taking our country back."
November's midterm elections will be a key moment for both of the two top political parties in the U.S. as Republicans seek to gain control of Congress and Democrats attempt to widen their power in both the House of Representatives and Senate. Some recent polling from CBS News and FiveThirtyEight has indicated that Republicans are in a good position to secure a House majority, while FiveThirtyEight assesses that the Democrats are "slightly favored" to maintain control in the Senate.
The Senate is currently composed of 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats, with two independents who caucus with Democrats. In the event of a tie in a Senate vote, Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris has the tiebreaker vote.
Cruz's mention of the "Biden FBI" at CPAC, which also featured a speech from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, appears to be a reference to an alleged FBI training document that he brought up during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on FBI oversight Thursday. Cruz asked FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was testifying at the hearing, about the document that he said was obtained by conservative organization Project Veritas.
This document, Cruz said, "listed various symbols and themes which, in the FBI's estimation, were indicative of 'militia violent extremism.'"
Those symbols included the Gonzales battle flag, according to Cruz. Just before making the comment about the Biden FBI and "dangerous radicals" at CPAC, Cruz pointed out the Gonzales battle flag in the room.
The Texas lawmaker voiced concerns at the Senate hearing Thursday that the FBI and Justice Department have become "thoroughly politicized." He also slammed his boot on the table at one point to show that it pictured the Gonzales battle flag on the back.
Wray responded at the time that he wasn't familiar with the document and is not "in the practice of trying to comment on documents that I haven't recognized."
"But I will tell you that when we put out intelligence products, including ones that reference symbols, which we do across a wide variety of contexts, we usually make great pains, take great pains to put caveats and warnings in the document that make clear that a symbol alone is not considered evidence of violent extremism," he added.
Newsweek reached out to Cruz's office for comment.
