COLLEYVILLE, Texas – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) held a press conference after meeting with Jewish leaders in Colleyville in the aftermath of the hostage crisis at Congregation Beth Israel. During his remarks, Sen. Cruz said:

“When that attack [at Congregation Beth Israel] was ongoing, the eyes of Texas, the eyes of the entire country, the eyes of the world were on north Texas—were on this horrific act of terror being carried out in our backyard. And I will say it is an incredible blessing that the four individuals held hostage were able to survive and come out unharmed. It was truly a blessing from God. While the hostage attack was going on, Heidi and I were lifting up the people that were in harm's way, lifting them up in prayer. At the same time, while the incident was playing forward, I was in communication—I spoke with a special agent in charge at the FBI who was leading the investigation here. I wanted to make sure that they had all the federal resources they needed, they had all the assets needed to end the hostage situation. At the time, the hostage rescue team was in the air coming from Quantico. I was informed they had between federal, state, and local, all the resources needed to mobilize and end the situation. I will say there was great heroism from law enforcement to go in to take out the terrorist and to save lives. That being said, the Jewish community is still in shock, is mourning. The following week, Friday night, I went to Shabbat services at Congregation Beth Israel in Houston simply to show my support for the community, that we stand together. And I have to say in there—this is something that we were all talking about upstairs. Texas is a big state. We’ve seen tragedy—whether tragedy from terror, tragedy from crime, tragedy from natural disaster, be it hurricane or tornado. And every time tragedy strikes the state of Texas, consistently we see Texans come together, we see Texans help each other, support each other. And that’s what we’ve seen in this community as well.”

He continued, condemning the rise of antisemitism:

“When it comes to antisemitism, antisemitism is a unique and horrific evil. And it is an evil that we are seeing escalating across the country and across the world. It is an evil that goes back millennia—thousands of years. The virulent hatred of the Jewish people is wrong. It is evil. It is horrific. It is dangerous. And it has been used to justify some of the most horrific atrocities this planet has ever seen. In my time in the Senate, I have been the leading defender of the State of Israel in the United States Senate for the past decade. And that is a labor of love from the heart when it comes to standing and fighting against antisemitism. That is something I've been proud to lead on.”

…

“The House of Representatives tried to pass a resolution condemning antisemitism. Nancy Pelosi introduced the resolution condemning antisemitism and sadly, the Democratic conference couldn't agree on it because of the Squad, because of the strong anti-Israel sentiment. They couldn't pass a resolution condemning antisemitism. When that happened, I thought it was important that we see a strong bipartisan condemnation of antisemitism. So I went in the Senate to Tim Kaine, Democrat from Virginia, [who] obviously was the running mate of Hillary Clinton. And I went to Tim and said, ‘Tim, can can we do better on the Senate side? Can we come together clearly and unequivocally and condemn antisemitism?’ We drafted a resolution. The resolution was the Cruz-Kaine resolution that clearly and explicitly condemns antisemitism as a unique evil, as an evil that goes back thousands of years. It condemns BDS—the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, which targets unfairly the State of Israel and is a manifestation of antisemitism. It condemns the antisemitic tropes that came from the Squad as antisemitism. And I have to say, I was proud, very proud that the United States Senate passed that resolution 100 to nothing—unanimously. We brought together every Republican and every Democrat condemning antisemitism. That's the sort of unity we need standing against antisemitism.”

On what’s being done to safeguard synagogues and other houses of worship in the aftermath of the attack, Sen. Cruz said:

“There are federal programs right now that provide funding to help with synagogues and churches and mosques, houses of worship, [to] harden their physical safety and infrastructure, [to] be able to stand against an act of terror, act of violence. A lot of the discussion upstairs was about how we could improve that program. I am working number one, to get clear accountability. One of the things I heard is that many of the synagogues who have applied to this grant program have been turned down. And they've been turned down [and] they don't have clear visibility on why they've been turned down. I and my team are going to work to try to get answers from the Biden administration, from the Department of Justice, from FEMA, as to how many houses of worship have applied for these programs, how many have been received funding, how many have been turned down, what the criteria have been, and what the results have been. Which houses of worship have been subjected to acts of violence in the aftermath? And I intend to work to significantly increase the funding that is available so that more houses of worship are able to receive grants to harden and strengthen their facilities.

On how the terrorist who attacked Congregation Beth Israel was able to come into the United States, Sen. Cruz said:

“So I've joined with a number of other senators asking the attorney general, asking the head of the FBI, asking the head of Homeland Security, why he came in, what we knew about his criminal record, what we knew about his terrorist ties, what we knew about his radicalization. At this point, we haven't gotten an answer. And I will say it's frustrating that the Biden administration is extraordinarily slow in responding to congressional oversight. And so we get, we just get crickets chirping. And I'm going to continue pressing, I'm going to continue fighting. Because there's a Democratic majority in the Senate, I don't have the ability to call a hearing—only the majority can call a hearing. What I can do is question witnesses that show up at a hearing that gets called by the Democrats. So the next hearing that I have an opportunity to question them, I’ll question them directly. I'm going to keep pressing for answers. But as of now, the administration has not provided answers that I think the American people deserve to know—what did we know? And how could we have prevented this terrorist from coming to America and committing this act of terror?”

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