Ted Cruz Slams Idea of Women in Combat

He breaks from other Republicans.

Elise Amendola/AP

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Ted Cruz told a crowd of supporters in Peterborough, New Hampshire, this afternoon that he was dumbstruck during last night’s debate that three of his Republican colleagues—Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, and Chris Christie—voiced their support for drafting women into the military.

“My reaction was, ‘Are you guys nuts?'” Cruz told the crowd, before launching a tirade against political correctness.

“We have had enough with political correctness especially in the military,” Cruz said. “Political correctness is dangerous and the idea that we would draft our daughters to forcibly bring them into the military and put them in close combat, I think is wrong. And if I am president, we ain’t doing it!”

Cruz then spoke about his own daughters and began to sound almost like draft protester from the Vietnam War era.

“I’m the father of two little girls, and I love those little girls with all my heart,” he said. “They are capable of doing anything in their heart’s desire. But the idea that their government would forcibly put them in a foxhole with a 220-pound psychopath trying to kill them doesn’t make any sense at all. It’s yet one more sign of this politically correct world where we forget common sense. We gotta get back to a president who just says, ‘No, that doesn’t make any sense.'”

Cruz’s opposition to the idea of women being drafted into combat roles did not appeal to the entire crowd of about 200 people who attended the rally. About half applauded loudly during those lines, while the others sat with their hands folded, suggesting support for women in combat is strong from certain parts of Cruz’s base, but not all.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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