Ted Cruz compares abortion-rights protesters outside Supreme Court Justice Alito's home to rioters at Capitol insurrection
- Sen. Ted Cruz said the Capitol riot was merely "tens of thousands of people peacefully protesting."
- He compared protests outside the homes of Supreme Court justices to the storming of the Capitol.
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Monday compared abortion-rights protesters demonstrating outside the homes of Supreme Court justices to rioters at the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
On Saturday, about 100 people protested in front of the homes of Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh. It is unclear whether either justice was home at the time. Protesters later appeared at the home of Justice Samuel Alito, the author of the recently leaked majority draft opinion from February that showed the court poised to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision.
Cruz in an appearance on Fox News on Monday said the protests, which came almost a week after the Supreme Court leak, were an example of "complete hypocrisy" by Democrats and the media.
"On January 6 of 2021, you had tens of thousands of people peacefully protesting, and yet the corporate media and Democrats slander them with the made-up term 'insurrectionist,'" he told the Fox News host Sean Hannity.
"And yet in this instance, they are not willing to call off their goons even now, even now, as this has the potential to escalate and escalate further," Cruz said of the Supreme Court protesters.
He added: "These images are the latest manifestation of just how extreme, just how radical, the Democratic Party is getting."
Fox News and Republican lawmakers have propagated an apparent rumor that Alito fled his home for his safety and had gone to an "undisclosed location."
Cruz tweeted in response to the unsubstantiated claim, saying: "Shameful. And the Biden White House is encouraging this lawless mob intimidation."
Correction: In an earlier version of this story the headline misstated that Cruz said abortion-rights protesters outside the home of Supreme Court justices were worse than Capitol rioters.