Two reporters left social media users with the impression Sunday afternoon that Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, had referred to U.S. servicemen as “220-pound male psychopaths,” when in reality the Texas lawmaker’s remarks were made in reference to enemy combatants.
Cruz said during a town hall event in New Hampshire that he opposes efforts that would require women to register for Selective Service, which means they could be drafted into the military. He said he thinks the idea is immoral.
“Listen, we have had enough with political correctness, especially in the military. Political correctness is dangerous. And the idea that we would draft our daughters to forcibly bring them into the military and put them in close combat, I think is wrong, it is immoral, and if I am president, we ain’t doing it,” the Texas senator told a crowd of supporters.
Several of Cruz’s GOP primary rivals, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, said in a debate Saturday evening that they were open to the idea.
Cruz said his opposition is based on the fact that he has two young daughters.
“I’m the father of two little girls. I love those girls with all of my heart. They are capable of doing anything their hearts desire,” he said. “But the idea that their government would forcibly put them in a foxhole with a 220-pound psychopath trying to kill them doesn’t make any sense.”
But tweets from CNBC’s John Harwood and CNN’s Teddy Schleifer left many social media users with the impression that the senator had referred to men in the U.S. military as “psychopaths.”
“Cruz says registering women for draft raises specter of forcing his and voters’ daughters in foxholes with 220-pound male psychopaths,” Harwood, who was in the room when Cruz was speaking, wrote in a tweet.
Asked if the senator had really said all that, the CNBC reporter responded, “yes he did.”
A series of notes from Schleifer had the same effect on Twitter users.
“CRUZ on debate: ‘It was striking that three different people on that stage came out in support of drafting women into the military,'” the CNN reporter said in a note.
“More Cruz – ‘The idea that we would draft our daughters…I think is wrong, it is immoral, and if I’m president, we ain’t doing it,'” he added. “‘The idea that we would put them in a foxhole with a 200 pound psychopath,” Cruz says, is just another example of political correctness.”
In the recounting of Cruz’s comments, both Harwood and Schleifer omitted the part where the senator said he feared his daughters would be forced into a situation where they would face men who are “trying to kill them.”
Harwood later removed his initial tweet after the full context of Cruz’s remarks appeared in a report by Politico’s Katie Glueck, but maintained the senator was unclear in his comments. Harwood conceded later that in the context of his comments on women and Selective Service, Cruz was referring to enemy troops.
The Weekly Standard’s Michael Warren, who was also at the event in New Hampshire, was one of the few reporters who noted correctly that Cruz was referring to enemy combatants as “psychopaths.”
