Ted Cruz: US Should Compete Against China in 2022 Winter Olympics And 'Kick Their Commie A**es'
01:04 GMT 22.11.2021 (Updated: 05:35 GMT 30.04.2023)
© REUTERS / Tasos Katopodis
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US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that his administration was mulling a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China. Calls for a boycott, which is also being considered by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), come in opposition to China's alleged treatment of the Uighurs. China has vowed to counter any such act.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) expressed on Sunday that although he did not support the International Olympic Committee holding the Olympics in China, backing out of the upcoming games in Beijing would not be the way to move forward.
"We've got young men and young women, Americans who spent their whole lives practicing for this moment. I don't want to punish those young athletes," Cruz told CBS' "Face the Nation."
At the Winter Olympics in Beijing, we must:
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) November 21, 2021
1. Have the courage to call out the murder, the genocide, the torture, and the lies and the complicity in COVID-19 of the Chinese Communist government.
2. Kick their commie asses and win! pic.twitter.com/sfVu8CF5ki
"I really hope our young men and women, that they go over there, and kick their commie a**es," Cruz proclaimed.
Later in the segment, Cruz accused the US National Basketball Association (NBA) and US-based companies like Nike of turning a blind eye to the alleged atrocities by the Chinese government.
"They're terrified of upsetting the Chinese communist dictators," he said of the NBA, adding that the organization was "bent backwards groveling to the Chinese communists" amid pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong back in 2019.
The Texas Republican's position comes counter to that of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK), who demanded that the US "implement a complete and total boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics."
Cotton asserted that the US must remove itself from participation in the 2022 games and launch a total boycott of the events, to ensure the safety of US athletes.
He asserted that the Biden administration had failed Americans by not implementing a boycott against the Beijing Olympics earlier this year.
Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of China's state-owned Global Times, issued a quick rebuke, slamming the US senator from Arkansas as a liar and "political rubbish."
"Hope in the US Congress, there isn’t only stink of rubbish like him," Hu added.
Likewise, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian declared on Friday that a possible US boycott "violates the Olympic spirit and harms the interests of athletes of all countries."
Though the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committees have also expressed that boycotts "hurt athletes," Biden has reignited the conversation by revealing that the US is still considering a diplomatic boycott, which would result in no US government officials attending the games in 2022. Similar talks are also underway in the UK.
