Ted Cruz Defends His Father’s Racially Charged Comments

US Senator Ted Cruz has come forward to explain and defend his father’s comments after coming under fire earlier this week. Tea Party champion Ted Cruz says detractors have taken his father’s comments about sending President Obama “back to Kenya” out of context in an attempt to smear him.

The comments at the center of the recent controversy were spoken by Pastor Rafael Cruz during a sermon last year. Mother Jones first revealed videos on Thursday of Pastor Cruz making racially charged remarks during various sermons. An outcry over the controversial statements soon followed.

Among the comments made by Ted Cruz’s father that some find objectionable include remarks expressing outrage that Obama would not agree that the United States is a “Christian nation.” He went so far as to call President Obama an “outright Marxist” with plans to “destroy all concept of God.” Rafael Cruz urged his listeners to send the president “back to Chicago, back to Kenya.”

Senator Ted Cruz claims that his father’s comments are being used to unfairly attack the rising conservative star. Cruz says his father is “a man of deep integrity. And he made a joke.” The comments were taken out of context, Cruz says. This is merely the senator’s critics “trying to play the politics of personal destruction” to attack him, according to CNN. “That’s a shame,” says Senator Ted Cruz. Previously, a spokesperson for Senator Cruz stated that his father does not speak for the senator.

As Senator Ted Cruz rises in popularity and the prospect of a bid for the 2016 presidential race becomes more likely, his father has come under fire for his characteristically controversial statements. While a politician’s parents’ comments might not usually be given so much public attention, Cruz has used his father to promote and rally supporters on several occasions.

A few weeks ago Pastor Rafael Cruz raised eyebrows after telling Republicans at a gathering in Colorado that the president has decided to “side with the Muslims.” He also went on to claim that the legalizing of gay marriage is meant to make “government your god.”

Senator Ted Cruz’s comments on Friday were among the first he has made regarding the controversy centered around his father. Cruz’s support will likely mean that his father will continue to play an active roll in rallying support around the rising Tea Party hero.

[Image via Gage Skidmore via photopin cc]