People baffled by Ted Cruz Seuss tweet, as Seinfeld-themed CPAC clip goes viral

Texas senator ridiculed for trying to pin publisher’s decision on Joe Biden

An attempt by Ted Cruz to spin a conservative narrative about cancel culture about the decision by Dr Seuss Enterprises to stop publishing six children’s books has left people somewhat confused.

The Texas senator posted two tweets on Wednesday in which he suggested that the publisher’s decision to no longer print six of the more than 60 Dr Seuss books for containing racist and outdated imagery was all the fault of Joe Biden.

At the same time, a small part of Mr Cruz’s speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, likened by many to a cringeworthy stand-up comedy set, has gone viral having had the opening theme to 90s sitcom Seinfeld added to it.

The segment of the speech concerned the process of eating in a restaurant under a Covid-19 mask mandate. It was likened to a joke from the show about comics asking “What’s the deal with airplane peanuts” and included the hashtag #netflixspecial.

In the first of the Dr Seuss tweets, Mr Cruz posted an image of a number of the author’s books topping an online bestseller list, captioning it: “Who knew Joe Biden was such a great bookseller.”

“Could Biden try to ban my book next?” the second tweet reads. “One Vote Away was the #1 Bestseller on Amazon a couple of months ago … maybe Joe could get it back there?”

He added a link to his book’s website.

Mr Cruz was swiftly ridiculed. One tweet read: “Do … do you think joe biden runs the seuss estate.”

Peacock host and MSNBC commentator Mehdi Hasan replied: “They didn’t discontinue The Cat in the Hat or Green Eggs and Ham and Joe Biden had nothing to do with a company’s decision to stop publishing racist stuff.”

He continued: “As I asked on my show last night: can Cruz get through any week/day without saying something ridiculous or dishonest?”

Conservative political commentator SE Cupp responded to Mr Cruz: “Congrats. You solved ZERO problems your TX constituents are facing today with this tweet.”

“But the dumb culture wars are lining your pockets…” she added.

Others said that maybe the senator had missed that Joe Biden had nothing to do with Dr Seuss because Mr Cruz had been on vacation in Cancun while his constituents endured winter storms and record low temperatures with no power or water.

“How does this tweet help the people of Texas?” asked one Twitter user.

“It shows us he becomes more incompetent by the day and to vote him out in 2024,” came a reply.

Democrat Representative Don Beyer of Northern Virginia noted that there was a wider problem regarding the Republican Party’s focus.

“Republicans are having a multi-day freakout over a private publishing company’s decision to let some of its books go out of print, which has nothing to do with the President or Congress,” he tweeted.

“Meanwhile, they are trying to block aid to address the deadly pandemic and economic crisis.”

Others offered advice to the senator: “Ted ... If you decide not to publish your own book, that's up to you,” wrote Bryan Fisher. “Biden didn't ban Dr. Seuss's books. The company that he created to manage his intellectual property after his death decided to discontinue them.”

“I know it's hard, but quit being so dishonest,” he added.