Ted Cruz blasts Washington Post for 'religious smear' against Amy Coney Barrett

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Sen. Ted Cruz accused the Washington Post of publishing a “religious smear” against Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Wednesday morning.

Cruz, who has been criticizing the media on a regular basis recently, took to Twitter to bash Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ newspaper for an article published Tuesday headlined, “Amy Coney Barrett served as a ‘handmaid’ in Christian group People of Praise.”

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Cruz quote tweeted the Post’s story and added his own caption.

“WaPo levels religious smear at Judge Barrett,” Cruz wrote. “Next, the Dems propose a test: if she floats . . . she’s a witch!”

The Post article that caught the attention of Cruz criticized Barrett for her reported ties to People of Praise, which the paper described as a small Christian group founded in the 1970s and based in South Bend, Ind.

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“A 2010 People of Praise directory states that she held the title of ‘handmaid,’ a leadership position for women in the community, according to a directory excerpt obtained by The Washington Post,” the paper reported.

“The group was one of many to grow out of the charismatic Christian movement, which sought a more intense and communal religious experience by embracing such practices as shared living, faith healing and speaking in tongues,” the Post continued.

The paper admitted “Barrett has said that judges are not policymakers and that she does not impose her personal convictions on the law.” The feature also eventually noted that the group dropped the “‘handmaid” moniker in recent years after the term’s meaning shifted in popular culture due to Margaret Atwood’s novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” being turned into a popular television series.

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., recently defended Barrett against "ongoing attacks by Senate Democrats and the media" related to her Catholic faith.

McConnell is leading the efforts by Senate Republicans to swiftly confirm Judge Barrett -- who was nominated by President Trump following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg -- before November's election. Barrett, a mother of seven, also faced criticism and accusations based on her religious beliefs when she was confirmed to the Seventh Circuit in 2017.

"Our coastal elites are so disconnected from their own country that they treat religious Americans like strange animals in a menagerie," McConnell said in a statement.

The Post article clearly irked Cruz, who has been an outspoken critic of the mainstream media in recent days. On Tuesday, Cruz asked CNN to “stop rooting” for President Trump to die from coronavirus.

Cruz tweeted the message in response to a Daily Caller video of a CNN segment that aired Monday as Trump arrived back at the White House after leaving Walter Reed Medical Center, where he was hospitalized for the coronavirus.

“Keep in mind this is not just the president returning to the White House, this may be Patient Zero. This is the virus coming back to the White House,” CNN reporter Jim Acosta said in the grim clip.

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“I will tell you... having been here all day, it is eerily quiet and empty inside the corridors of the West Wing,” Acosta told CNN viewers. “They evacuated much of the West Wing earlier today.”

Cruz retweeted the video to his nearly four million followers with the caption, “CNN, stop rooting for our President to die.”

Last week, Cruz appeared on CNN and got into a fiery clash with the "Cuomo Prime Time" namesake when the Republican took a swipe at the anchor's Democratic brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Fox News' Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.