Cruz faults Obama for not preventing shooting outside Muhammad cartoon event

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz slammed President Barack Obama’s administration for failing to intercept the two men who opened fire outside a free-speech conference in the Dallas area that featured drawings of the Prophet Muhammad.

The Republican senator and presidential candidate said this was not the first time Obama did not prevent an act of terrorism, referring to the 2009 attack at Fort Hood and the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant has claimed credit for the shooting in Texas.


“Once again, as with Nidal Hasan and the Tsarnaev brothers, we have radical Islamic terrorists who this Administration knew about and yet failed to connect the dots and prevent this act of terrorism,” Cruz said Tuesday, according to The Dallas Morning News.

Cruz called it another “reminder of the continued threat of radical terrorism,” noting — as he and other Republicans often do — that Obama does not call such acts “radical Islamic terrorism.”

A police officer shot and killed Elton Simpson and Nadir Soofi outside the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland on Sunday night, preventing the two gunmen from entering the building.