Republican Senator Ted Cruz creeped everyone out on Twitter when he compared the actions of Democratic women in Congress to "Girls Gone Wild" videos.
On Thursday the Texas Republican published an episode of his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz. During the show, he fondly recalled the sleazy, exploitative video series.
While a sitting senator discussing "Girls Gone Wild" in any context outside of a regulatory hearing is strange enough, the context of Mr Cruz's statement made it more bizarre.
“[The Democrats are] doubling down when it comes to so many aspects of the economy — on the cultural social issues, they’re defending drag queens jiggling for kids, actual little tiny children in bars, 21 plus bars in Texas of all places, they’re defending it,” he told his co-host Michael Knowles. “You know, Michael, it reminds me of, do you remember those videos that would come out every spring break, Girls Gone Wild and it would have lots of college women in bikinis or not bikinis?”
After transitioning from talking about children and drag queens to softcore porn from the 2000's, Mr Cruz took his weird commentary into truly uncomfortable territory.
“It reminds me of much the same thing. This is Liberals Gone Wild. This is the crazy left that — this is AOC and Elizabeth Warren, thank God, not in bikinis, um, but embracing their socialist nuttiness. I mean, it’s literally like someone sat down at a bar and said, how much crazy crap can we do?” he said.
It's unclear exactly what the mangled metaphor was meant to convey.
Once the clip began circulating on social media, users wasted no time criticising the strange exchange.
"Weird online freak Ted Cruz just continuing to be a colossal creep," one user wrote in response to the video.
Another user referenced the fact that "Girls Gone Wild" founder Joe Francis was arrested and convicted numerous times for crimes committed during his time running the company. He was found guilty in 2013 assaulting and causing "great bodily injury" to someone and three counts of false imprisonment after he took three women home and refused to allow them to leave.
He smashed one of the women's heads into the floor of his home, according to prosecutors.
"Just a couple of normal dudes reminiscing about the sex crime videos," the user wrote.
Another user voiced their disgust that just weeks after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 students and two faculty members of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in a mass shooting, the state's senator was focused on mocking women and engaging in culture war rhetoric.
"@SenTedCruz what a great example of the misogynistic bigoted hateful person you are! Guns over children, making fun of women's bodies, fleeing over responsibility. What a disputable [sic] Senator you are," they wrote, signing off with a vomiting emoji.
