Ted Cruz Silent About Activist Who Said Judaism “Perverted Itself”

Now Cruz faces a tough reelection fight against Allred, a Democratic congressman and former NFL player. Polls show Allred either narrowly behind or even ahead of Cruz. And Cruz’s ties to Newman might complicate his prospects. Allred is campaigning hard on his support for abortion rights.

The altered landscape has some observers wondering where Newman fits in with Cruz today. Last month, Mother Jones reported that a Cruz campaign press release from 2016 announcing the “Pro-Lifer for Cruz” group Newman co-chaired cited some extremist quotes from the activist’s 2001 book, Their Blood Cries Out, which Newman co-authored with Cheryl Sullenger. In the book, MoJo reported, Newman and Sullenger wrote that, in dealing with the “blood-guilty,” the U.S. government’s responsibility “rightly involves executing convicted murderers, including abortionists, for their crimes.”

The book also includes previously unreported antisemitic tropes, thematically linking abortion supporters today to alleged Jewish sins of the past. “The bloodguilt associated with murdering Jesus, the prophets, and then the Apostles caused a great firestorm of judgment to fall upon the Jewish people,” Newman writes. “It was a judgment so severe that the Jewish people will never recover. There has been a partial retribution. All the righteous blood from Abel to Jesus has been paid for through the destruction of Israel in 70 AD. In the same way that Israel was polluted with innocent blood, so is America defiled and cursed with the innocent blood of aborted children.”