‘Um, actually’: Ted Cruz forced to backpedal after wrongly claiming communism tortured his dad in Cuba

Ted Cruz is arguably the most disliked man in the Senate, despised by both Republicans and Democrats alike. Even his theoretical ally Lindsey Graham didn’t mince his words in 2016 when he said: “If you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you.”

All of which means there’s been much jubilation after Tucker Carlson systematically dismantled Cruz in an interview on his show. Carlson didn’t pull any punches, exposing his fundamental lack of knowledge about Iran, and looked baffled as Cruz refused to say that Mossad spying in the United States is a bad thing.

Cruz is sore about the whole thing, posting an (inevitably) AI-generated comic of Carlson quizzing Luke Skywalker on how many people were aboard the Death Star when he blew it up (Star Wars fans immediately countered by explaining Luke memorized the number and feels guilty about it).

Anyhow, one of the lesser comic moments of the whole affair came when Cruz was burnishing his anti-Communist credentials. Cruz angrily pointed out, “My father was imprisoned and tortured in Cuba. I hate Communists.” Then, after a brief pause, Cruz added, “…It was actually Batista that tortured my dad.”

TED CRUZ HATES COMUNISTS BECAUSE HIS DAD WAS TORTURED BY BATISTA 🤔🤔🤔 pic.twitter.com/eiQzi2ebfo

— DA ELLE’FANT IN DA ROOM (@daellefant_room) June 18, 2025

For those not up on Cuban history, Fulgencio Batista was the US-backed military dictator of Cuba until 1959, when Communist rebels led by Fidel Castro overthrew his brutal regime, and he was forced to flee the country.

Slippery and disingenuous

Ted’s dad, Rafael has said he fought in Castro’s Cuban revolution as a teenager, and “suffered beatings and imprisonment for protesting the oppressive [Batista] regime”. In 1957 Rafael left Cuba for the United States on a student visa, two whole years before the Batista regime was overthrown by Castro. He would later turn against Castro and, amusingly, claim he had no idea that the revolutionary leader was a Communist.

So, if Ted really wants to get revenge for his father’s imprisonment and torture, he should probably be ranting against the evils of capitalism and angrily knocking on the door of the CIA. Either way, the whole affair has once again underlined that Ted Cruz is a slippery and disingenuous guy, and there are good reasons why even his supposed Republican buddies roll their eyes when he walks into a room.