Hecklers shout ‘He should be shot’ as Ted Cruz calls out El-Sayed and Talarico at Trump convention
Por Eric Garcia — – World RSS Feed
Hecklers shout ‘He should be shot’ as Ted Cruz calls out El-Sayed and Talarico at Trump convention
Republicans increasingly seek to tie Democrats to left-wing members of the caucus and personalities like Hasan Piker
Eric Garcia Friday 11 September 2026 00:45 BST
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Hecklers shouted “he should be shot” during Sen. Ted Cruz’s speech at Donald Trump’s midterm convention in Dallas when the Texas Republican mentioned a string of prominent Democrats.
Cruz spoke at the convention, which President Donald Trump concocted to bolster Republican support ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. During his speech, Cruz specifically criticized Sharia law, a common attack point from Republicans that argues that Muslims will enforce their ideas on other Americans.
“Hear me now: Sharia law has no place in America,” he said to rapturous applause and chants of “USA.” “It is fundamentally inconsistent with the Constitution of the United States, and we need to stand together to stop it now.”
Cruz then proceeded to criticize Twitch streamer Hasan Piker as well as New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico and Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed.
“When Hasan Piker says ‘America deserved 9/11,’ he means it,” Cruz said. “When Mamdani says he wants to “seize the means of production,” he means it. When Abdul El Sayed says he has an “obligation” to comply with Sharia law, he means it. And when James Talarico says he wants to “dismantle capitalism,” he means it.”
In between each of the call-outs of elected officials, a heckler could be heard saying “He should be shot.”
Cruz, who ran against Trump and whose father Trump accused of being affiliated with the man who shot President John F. Kennedy in Dallas, did not call out the hecklers and likely did not hear them.
“Now understand, not every Democrat in the House and Senate believes this,” he said. “But they are all afraid of these radicals, because that’s where the money and the energy and the young people are in the Democrat Party.”
Cruz pointed out how almost no Democrats disavowed Graham Platner, the embattled Democratic nominee for Senate who had to drop out amid a Politico report that he sexually assaulted an ex-partner, which Platner denied.
“Why does El-Sayed refuse to disavow Hasan Piker?” he said. “Why does Chuck Schumer stand alongside El-Sayed? Their threats are not simply empty words.”
Republicans have repeatedly slammed Piker throughout the midterm convention, seeking to tie him to numerous Democrats, particularly El-Sayed, who is Muslim, for his comments that the United States deserved the terrorist attacks in New York, Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon outside of Washington, D.C. Piker later apologized.
Republican Senate nominees in Michigan and Texas, former Rep. Mike Rogers and Attorney General Ken Paxton respectively, both attended the convention.
Polling shows a dead heat race between them and their Democratic opponents.
Because Paxton defeated incumbent Republican Sen. John Cornyn, Cruz will become the senior senator from Texas. He’s occasionally hinted that he would want to make another run for president.
He has also increasingly criticized the isolationist and anti-Israel wing of the Republican Party led by personalities such as Tucker Carlson and Nick Fuentes.
Talarico, for his part, spent the week of Republicans convening in Dallas hosting a “Love Thy Neighbor” grocery drive and hosting survivors of Jeffrey Epstein.
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Ted CruzDemocratsZohran MamdaniMuslims
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