Ted Cruz was heckled and cheered at a voters summit in Washington D.C. Cruz was heckled for his stance on immigration but cheered for his crusade against Obamacare.
The Republican senator from Texas stressed that the current political climate has taken a turn for the worse.
“We can’t keep going down this road much longer. We’re nearing the edge of a cliff,” Cruz said, according to a video of his speech on the Huffington Post. A protester then told him: “Sen. Cruz, why don’t you support a pathway to citizenship for immigrant families?”
Cruz then shrugged the protester off and talked about First Amendment rights.
“And I only wish the Obama administration respected First Amendment rights that much,” he said before another person heckled him. Other people in the crowd then shouted: “Shut up! Shut up!.”
According to USA Today, Cruz was heckled around six more times.
“It seems President Obama’s paid political operatives are out in force today,” he commented. “And you know why? The men and women in this room scare the living daylights out of them.”
Cruz made headlines last month for his 21-hour faux-filibuster that was intended to protest the health care law that has now gone into effect on Oct. 1. His speech to defund Obamacare helped spark a rift among Congressional Republicans and Democrats that led to the current government shutdown.
“We have a couple of years to turn this country around ... or we go off into the oblivion,” Cruz said.