On Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz suggested that the best response to a young protester who yelled “you suck” during a campaign rally in Indiana would be a good spanking. It’s the second time the Republican presidential candidate has brought up the controversial form of physical punishment on the campaign trail.
“Children should actually speak with respect,” Cruz said. “Imagine what a different world it would be if someone told Donald Trump that years ago.”
Cruz then shared some parenting advice from his own family. “You know, in my household, when a child behaves that way, they get a spanking,” he continued, prompting cheers from the crowd.
Cruz seems to have a penchant for spanking. In January, the Texas senator raised eyebrows by urging voters to give Hillary Clinton a “spanking” over her handling of the terrorist attack in Benghazi. After all, he told supporters, drawing an unusual parallel to the former secretary of state, if he suspected his five-year-old daughter was lying, she’d receive the same form of punishment.
“You know, I’ll tell you, in my house, if my daughter Catherine, the five-year-old, says something she knows to be false, she gets a spanking,” he said. “Well, in America, the voters have a way of administering a spanking.”
Cruz’s support of corporal punishment comes in the face of overwhelming evidence showing its connection to a laundry list of behavioral problems including increased levels of aggression and defiance.
