Ted Cruz Conflates Pat Benatar With Child Murder, Singer Responds

Rep. Ted Cruz, the Republican junior senator from Texas, bizarrely conflated popular '80s rock singer Pat Benatar with President Joe Biden and "murdering children" on The Joe Pags Show last week.

Benatar subsequently offered a two-word response.

Was Cruz recalling Benatar's 1980 song about child abuse, "Hell Is for Children"? That tune was written about the horrors of child abuse. But Cruz seemingly harnessed the set of far-right conspiracy theories known as QAnon to tie the idea of "murdering children" to Benatar. See the clip below.

"I don't think Senate Democrats — if you had video of Joe Biden murdering children dressed as the devil under a full moon while singing Pat Benatar, they still wouldn't vote to convict," Cruz said in the objectively outlandish remark, as UCR reported.

**Ted Cruz Mentions Pat Benatar on The Joe Pags Show - June 14, 2023**

What Cruz was discussing at that point on the conservative talk show was Republicans' widely-discussed hopes for impeaching Biden — what is essentially a right-wing revenge plot after former President Donald Trump, a Republican, was impeached twice, in 2019 and 2021. Though he was acquitted both times, Trump became the first president in U.S. history to stand two impeachments.

Pat Benatar's Response

The day after Cruz's Joe Pags appearance, Benatar posted a message on her joint Facebook page with her husband Neil Giraldo, a fellow musician. The text graphic reads only, "NICE TRY!"

Asked for a more detailed response by Variety, Benatar's representative said she would make no further comment, as UCR noted. She and Giraldo head out on a North American tour together starting on July 22 in Northfield, Ohio. It runs through Nov. 8 with a date in Cancun, Mexico.

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