Cruz on Olympic Boycott: Hurting U.S. Athletes Is ‘Weakness’ – ‘We Should Go Over There, Call Them Out’

On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) stated that he opposes boycotting the 2022 Olympics because “hurting American athletes is a policy of weakness.” And that the U.S. “should go over there, call them out, be absolutely explicit.”

Cruz said, “To be honest, I haven’t thought about that question. I’m generally not a fan of boycotting things like boycotting the Olympics.”

He added that China is “committing genocide.” But “we shouldn’t punish American athletes. I think we should go over there, call them out, be absolutely explicit. I’ve introduced legislation to sanction the officials responsible for the genocide, to fight them, and call them out directly. But you know, when Jimmy Carter boycotted the Olympics, I didn’t think it was a very good policy. I think hurting American athletes is a policy of weakness. But the answer we shouldn’t do is to do what a lot of — all the Democrats and a lot of Republicans will want to do, which is go over there and kiss Xi’s behind. We need to speak the truth and call them out unequivocally.”

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