Dem: Pro-Cruz ‘Sandy Hook’ ad ‘makes me want to throw up’

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) is slamming an ad by a pro-Sen. Ted Cruz super-PAC that highlights the Texas Republican’s opposition to gun control legislation in the wake of a Dec. 2012 elementary school shooting in Connecticut.

“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 a statement on Friday, referencing the attack.

“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.”

{mosads}The Connecticut senator’s comments come after the Courageous Conservatives PAC, a group that supports presidential candidate Cruz, released a 60-second radio ad. While the spot largely focuses on 2016 rival Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) record in the Senate, it also highlights that “after Sandy Hook Ted Cruz stopped Obama’s push for new gun control laws.” 

Under federal law, super-PACs aren’t allowed to coordinate with campaigns, and the group notes in the ad that it is not authorized by any candidate or campaign.

Twenty-six people were killed during the school shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Following the shooting, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) rolled out a gun control proposal that was ultimately defeated in the Senate in April 2013. Both Cruz and Rubio voted against the bill.

A separate proposal from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to ban assault weapons also failed to pass the Senate in the wake of the Connecticut shooting. Both Rubio and Cruz voted against that legislation as well.

Murphy, a vocal advocate for new gun control measures, added Friday that “it’s sick that he thinks he’ll win votes by specifically pointing out that in the wake of 20 dead first graders, he was the face of the fight to ensure no action was taken to stop more deranged killers from walking into elementary schools with military-style assault weapons loaded with 30-round clips of ammunition.”

PAC spokesman Rick Shaftan called on Murphy to apologize, saying the Connecticut Democrat is “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.”

A Pew Research Center poll released earlier this year found that 88 percent of Americans favor expanding background checks on firearm purchasers.

Dozens of Senate Democrats have rolled out a sweeping gun control campaign, with legislation expected late this year or in early 2016. Separately, Murphy and a handful of Democrats are backing legislation that would close a loophole that allows federally licensed gun retailers to sell a gun without a background check after 72 hours.

– Updated at 8:06 p.m.