TED’S UGLY ADVENTURE
Astros-fan pol hit with Bronx jeers & curses at Yankee Stadium then heckled on ‘The View’
Ted Cruz was reminded of his “value” to New York City with a night-day doubleheader of disdain that played out on national television.
The Texas senator — who riled up New Yorkers six years ago when he slammed “New York values” in his failed campaign for president — proved as popular as ever in his contentious return to the big city. That adventure began with insults and one-finger salutes Sunday night in Yankee Stadium, followed by a visit to ABC’s “The View” on Monday morning that was interrupted by angry protesters.
Unlike the previous night, Cruz was at least welcomed to “The View” with applause.
“They gave you a better reception than the Yankees fans,” cohost Ana Navarro said.
Cruz smiled and shrugged as he settled among the five-woman panel for a discussion that would touch on everything from Jan. 6 to the Houston Astros four-game playoff sweep of the Yankees.
“That’s all right,” he responded. “I was pretty happy with the way the game ended up myself.”
The conversation was quickly interrupted when demonstrators began chanting, “Cover climate now!”
One of the show’s hosts could be heard telling protesters that climate is a topic the show addresses, as moderator Whoopi Goldberg called for calm. It’s not clear if the outburst was aimed at “The View” or Cruz, a climate change denier who once famously stated that “The scientific evidence doesn’t support global warming.”
A trio of protesters responsible for interrupting Cruz’s visit was reportedly removed from the studio.
There wasn’t much security guards could do in the Bronx on Sunday night where the Republican leader was heckled by numerous fans who jeered and flipped their middle fingers in the 51-yearold conservative’s direction.
Cruz, sporting an orange shirt matching the Astros colors, smiled and waved amid a sea of blue Yankees caps and a chorus of insults.
“Racist piece of s--t,” one fan yelled as Cruz walked to his seat a few rows behind home plate.
Cruz’s home team is loathed by
Yankees fans, having knocked the Bronx Bombers out of the playoffs in four of the last eight years. Cruz himself became unpopular with New Yorkers in 2016 when he criticized “New York values” while campaigning against former New Yorker Donald Trump in the Republican primary.
In a “Fox Business” debate, Cruz said those values included being “socially liberal, or pro-abortion, or pro gay marriage” and motivated by money and media. “Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan,” he claimed.
Trump, who has fathered five
children with three women and been accused of adultery on multiple occasions, disagreed, citing the city’s response to the terror attacks on 9/11 as testament to solid character.
“That was a very insulting statement that Ted made,” he replied to thunderous applause.
Cruz’s low blow at New Yorkers instantly made him persona non grata in these parts — and sparked an iconic Daily News front page featuring an image of Lady Liberty giving him the finger.
During that race, Trump frequently insulted Cruz — even taking cheap shots at the senator’s wife — on his way to vanquishing his Lone Star State challenger and winning the presidency. Cruz quickly aligned himself with the 45th president on key issues including crackdowns on immigration. His hard-line position on that subject inspired a heckler in a Bronx restaurant to confront the lawmaker in 2016.
“You’re running on an anti-immigrant platform, and you’re speaking in the Bronx,” Rodrigo Venegas told Cruz. “You should not be here.”
That protester was cheered as he was removed from the eatery.
Cruz was born in Calgary, Canada, and moved to Houston as a child, where he was raised by his mother, who’s from Delaware, and his father — a Cuban migrant who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2005.
Mayoral spokesman Fabien Levy gave Cruz the verbal middle finger on Twitter after seeing a photo of Yankees fans shooting him the bird, all but assuring the senator it’ll happen again.
“Criticize our city and this is the proper welcome you get,” he tweeted. “It’s also the proper welcome for anyone named @tedcruz at any time.”