Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke out Thursday on behalf of the Covington Catholic High School students whose encounter with Native American activist Nathan Phillips at the Lincoln Memorial became national news this week.
After a short video of the incident went viral, many in the media reported that the kids, who were wearing "Make America Great Again" hats, were harassing Phillips. However, a longer video revealed that Phillips first approached the boys and began playing a drum in student Nick Sandmann’s face. In a statement that is largely corroborated by the longer footage, Sandmann said the group of boys were not antagonizing the activists and had simply done some school spirit chants after another group, the Black Hebrew Israelites, yelled slurs at them.
Liberal comedian Jim Carrey tweeted a cartoon Tuesday attacking the students despite the greater context of the incident appearing to back up their claims that they were not harassing Phillips and the many media corrections.
Carrey’s tweet referred to the boys as “baby snakes.”
Baby snakes. pic.twitter.com/SHhaXwfwZl
— Jim Carrey (@JimCarrey) January 22, 2019
Sen. Cruz accused Carrey of “partisan hate,” pointing out that “he doesn’t care that the full video showed these high school students as victims of harassment, not the other way around” and asking that he “leave the kids alone.”
Just sad. Rich & powerful celebrity uses his fame to pick on teenagers. So much partisan hate, he doesn’t care that the full video showed these high school students as victims of harassment, not the other way around. Jim, insult me, insult Trump, fine. But leave the kids alone. https://t.co/ymiVKsNcly
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) January 24, 2019
The Covington Catholic school and community have been dealing with the fallout from the incident. Many have been doxxed, received threats of violence, and the school was closed Tuesday due to safety concerns.