The radio ad states: “Ted Cruz makes things happen. … After Sandy Hook, Ted Cruz stopped Obama’s push for new gun-control laws.” | AP Photo Sen. Murphy: New Ted Cruz super PAC ad ‘makes me want to throw up'

Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy said he is sickened by a new ad by a Ted Cruz super PAC that invokes the Sandy Hook school shootings.

The radio ad, which was published by The Courageous Conservatives PAC, states: “Ted Cruz makes things happen. … After Sandy Hook, Ted Cruz stopped Obama’s push for new gun-control laws.”


Murphy, a vocal supporter of gun control, said in a statement that Cruz’s stance shows how callous he can be.

“The new Ted Cruz ad makes me want to throw up, and I'm pretty sure that's a feeling shared by many who lived through the horror of Sandy Hook,” Murphy said in the statement. “Showing off how callous he was in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting may win him some right-wing votes that get swept up from Donald Trump or Ben Carson, but it disqualifies him in a general election.

“Middle-of-the-road, common-sense voters support measures like expanded background checks,” Murphy continued. "But more importantly, they won't be impressed by a campaign whose opening pitch to voters is portraying the candidate as the one senator who took on the parents of Sandy Hook in the wake of the most horrific mass shooting in our lifetime.”

The Cruz super PAC ad starts by taking aim at Sen. Marco Rubio, who has enjoyed a bump in the polls and a string of endorsements in the wake of the last GOP debate.

Cruz has said it’s possible the Republican nomination will be between him and Rubio in the end.

“What’s Rubio ever done?” the ad’s narrator says. “Anything? Other than his Gang of 8 amnesty bill? Can anyone think of anything Marco Rubio’s ever done? Marco Rubio looks good on TV but that’s about it.”

Then, after the mention of Cruz’s successful effort to stop new gun-control laws, the ad goes on to list other actions Cruz has been involved with and ends with, “Rubio or Cruz: Which one do you trust?”

Super PAC spokesman Rick Shaftan hit back in a statement to POLITICO Saturday, calling on an apology from Murphy.

“Senator Murphy owes an apology for politicizing Sandy Hook with his call for expanding gun control laws when it was in fact his own gun control laws and silly gun-free zones that caused this tragedy," Shaftan said.