‘How Do We Know?’ Sen. Ted Cruz Attacks Colleague Liz Warren by Insinuating She is Transgender

In the US, 25 murders of transgender people have been recorded in 2022 thus far, with the vast majority of the victims being trans women and trans women of color. The number of killings has greatly increased in recent years, corresponding to increased demonization of trans people, including claims that trans women are not real women.

In an attempt at stand-up comedy, US Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) went on a bizarre and crass rant at a Nevada cookout recently, taking swipes at liberals and other groups of people, including transgender people.

“We need courage responding to crazy town,” Cruz said at the annual Basque Fry, a large cookout frequented by conservative heavyweights in Gardnerville, Nevada, on Saturday.

One of the leading GOP senators and a regular in presidential primary races for years, Cruz targeted the woman who is in many ways his polar opposite: progressive Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA).

A day before the cookout, Politico published an excerpt from the forthcoming book “Electable: Why America Hasn’t Put a Woman in the White House … Yet,” by NBC journalist Ali Vitali, in which she quoted Warren joking about the uphill battle she faced in the 2020 presidential primary race.

Here's the video of Ted Cruz joking that Elizabeth Warren might have a penis. @lawindsor pic.twitter.com/eZsQvVPD7Q

— David Edwards (@DavidEdwards) August 14, 2022

“We’d talked about the dynamics of Iowa, her competitors and the pressure she put on herself not ‘to screw this up,’’ Vitali wrote in the excerpt, adding that Warren told her: “Everyone comes up to me and says, ‘I would vote for you, if you had a penis.'”

Some other comments Vitali noted included an organizer on Warren’s staff, who recalled that a “60 year-old white woman with peace sign in her front yard” told her, “Oh, sweetie, this country will never have a woman president.”

Cruz told the cookout crowd of roughly 1,500 Republicans that he didn’t believe Warren’s story, but added: “In today’s Democrat Party, how do we know she doesn’t?”

“How could you possibly know? ‘My name is Elizabeth. Call me Bob,’” Cruz said, invoking a common transphobic misconception about trans women that they are simply men in disguise.

His attacks on trans women became more blunt as the “show” went on, however, and he soon called college champion swimmer Lia Thomas, a favorite punching bag for conservatives, a “dude.”

“He looks like Michael Phelps,” the senator added, referring to the Olympic champion swimmer while using the incorrect pronouns for Thomas.

Trans people are not a new target for Cruz. During a speech at Turning Point USA's annual Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida, last month, he slammed what he called “woke college campuses” for affirming the identities of trans people.

I'm Ted Cruz, and my pronoun is... "kiss my ass"!

#SAS2022 @TPUSA pic.twitter.com/G8n82uh2CH

— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 23, 2022

"I talked to a student recently at one of our woke college campuses who said she is required in every class to introduce herself and to give her pronouns," Cruz told the group of conservative college students. "Well my name is Ted Cruz and my pronoun is 'kiss my a**.'"

Cruz’s home state of Texas has taken severe actions against trans people, including investigating the parents of trans children for child abuse if they affirm their child’s gender identity, and banning trans athletes from competing on sports teams of their gender, among other civil rights restrictions.

Texas’ policies are part of a nationwide rollback of LGBTQ rights that has especially targeted transgender women and children, with hundreds of bills being introduced in state legislatures aiming to legalize discrimination across wide swaths of US public life. The cultural demonization of LGBTQ people has in turn fueled attacks by far-right and fascist groups on LGBTQ people. In June, Idaho police arrested 30 members of the fascist militia Patriot Front who were on the cusp of attacking a Pride event in a city park.