Lindsey Martin, a Twitter user who helped circulate the meme, told NPR that she did so because it is "so obviously untrue. The meme has been repeated, without disclaimer, in anti-Cruz opinion pieces in GQ and the Chicago Tribune. Ĭomedian Larry Wilmore made references to the meme in his April 2016 routine at the White House Correspondents' Dinner, including a joke that Cruz was not campaigning to win the nomination, but to continue a murder spree. In February 2016, Public Policy Polling asked registered voters in Florida ahead of the Republican primary if they believed Cruz to be the Zodiac Killer 10% believed and 28% were not sure. Books about Cruz being the Zodiac Killer, including romantic ones, were listed on. In popular culture Ĭomedian Larry Wilmore made joking suggestions that Cruz was the Zodiac Killer at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in April 2016Īfter the edited image showing the question on Google trended, the meme spread into popular culture. In December 2020, after the 340-character Zodiac cipher was cracked, Cruz retweeted an article about the cipher with the caption "uh oh". Ĭruz himself has jocularly alluded to the meme by tweeting one of the Zodiac Killer's cryptograms first in October 2017 responding to a retweet from Senator Ben Sasse referring to Cruz as "the son of the guy who killed Kennedy" (a reference to a conspiracy theory involving Rafael Cruz) and then wishing a "Happy Halloween" in 2018. A Google search turns up 621,000 hits, including exploratory articles by some of the biggest news publications on the web". A Facebook group named for the meme has more than 27,000 members. In April 2016, the Houston Chronicle said the meme "has a following. writer Matthew Dunn suggested that Google was censoring the search term, showing evidence that it accounted for 89% of total searches when compared to other terms in the autocomplete. That month, "is ted cruz the zodiac killer" was the second highest suggestion in Google's autocomplete for "is ted", but by April it was not in the autocomplete at all. It continued in obscurity up to February 2016, when another Twitter user edited a picture of a Republican debate in order to include "Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac Killer?" in the interactive ticker at the bottom. The actual Tweet was, "Alert: Ted Cruz is speaking!! His speech is titled: 'This Is The Zodiac Speaking'" The meme was not repeated until November 2014, by another Twitter user writing about Cruz's proposal against net neutrality. Dylan Baddour of the Houston Chronicle, ApĪ January 2016 investigation by Miles Klee of The Daily Dot found the first use of the meme to be by a Twitter user in March 2013, as Cruz was speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference and vowing to repeal the Affordable Care Act. For Cruz, the Baptist senator for Texas and right-wing Republican presidential candidate, it's an unexpected foray into popular culture. But it's a prolific joke, and one you can find printed on bumper stickers and a variety of black metal tees across the country. "Instead, he said he supports increasing law enforcement presence on school campuses," Kimberly Mata-Rubio, the bereaved mother, wrote on Twitter.To be clear: the Zodiac Killer line is a joke. The parents of Alexandria Aniyah Rubio, a 10-year-old killed in the Uvalde shooting, said they asked Cruz in a private meeting on Wednesday to support a federal ban on semi-automatic weapons.
Since the Uvalde school shooting took place in May, Cruz has resisted calls to support gun control measures. The poster shared the video on Twitter along with a message of support for Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke for governor of Texas. You're a partisan, that's okay," Cruz says before turning away. The heckler ignores Cruz's comment and asks him to name any Uvalde victim agains. And ask why Chris Murphy objected and stopped the biggest school safety bill that's ever passed yesterday," Cruz responded. In the video, the heckler then asks Cruz whether he knows any of the names of the Uvalde victims.
Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut, had derided Cruz and his legislation as "theater" and not an "actual attempt to pass legislation." Cruz had asked for unanimous consent, which means that any opposition stopped the bill from passing. Cruz responds by talking about his proposed school safety bill, blocked on the Senate floor on Wednesday.
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