Shouts of ‘he should be shot’ heard during GOP midterm convention speech criticizing Democratic candidates

By Patrick Svitek, CNN

(CNN) — Shouts of “he should be shot” could be heard multiple times Thursday night at the Republican midterm convention as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was criticizing prominent Democratic politicians by name.

Cruz mentioned three Democrats — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, Michigan Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed and Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. After each name, there were shouts audible on the broadcast of “He should be shot!”

It was unclear if Cruz heard the shouts, and representatives for the senator and the Republican National Committee did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

But the shouts came on the same day that many Republicans denounced political violence on the one-year anniversary of the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Vice President JD Vance, who was friends with Kirk, reflected on his killing in a headlining speech.

El-Sayed responded during an interview on CNN’s “The Source with Kaitlan Collins.”

“I’m a dad with two daughters and I hope those daughters get to grow up and live with their dad,” he told Collins. “This is what has become norm in our politics. I mean, literally calls to violence.”

He added that “everybody who heard” the shouts should condemn them.

Kirk, the co-founder of Turning Point USA, was shot and killed on a Utah college campus a year ago. He was 31.

“Charlie was killed one year ago today,” RNC Chairman Joe Gruters said as the second day of convention speeches kicked off. “He believed in America and freedom and young people’s courage to stand up and fight for the country they love.”

Many of Thursday’s speeches were otherwise devoted to attacking Democrats as ideologically radical. The shouts of “He should be shot!” could be heard while Cruz was telling Republicans to take seriously the past comments and positions of Mamdani, El-Sayed and Talarico.

“A simple truth: When people tell you who they are, believe them,” Cruz said. “When Mamdani says he wants to seize the means of protection, he means it.”

“When Abdul El-Sayed says he has a, quote, ‘obligation,’ to comply with Sharia law, he means it,” the Texas senator said.

“And when James Talarico says he wants to dismantle capitalism, he means it,” Cruz said.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist, spoke about “the end goal of seizing the means of production” during a 2021 speech discussing his political beliefs, according to Politifact. When the comment came up during his 2025 mayoral campaign, a spokesperson said his platform did not include seizing the means of production.

Cruz’s criticism of El-Sayed stems from a 2009 interview with The New York Times where El-Sayed, then a medical student, said he felt an “obligation” to follow Sharia law in buying his first home. Muslims are discouraged from paying interest on loans, which can make seeking out a mortgage more complicated.

And Cruz was calling out Talarico over a recent CNN report that he said in 2020 that capitalism needed to be “dismantl(ed)” along with White supremacy and climate change. Talarico’s campaign said the Democrat was a “proud capitalist” in response to the CNN story.

Cruz brought up Kirk’s killing during his speech while denouncing what he described as a rising tide of extremism in politics, one day before the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

“The hate that killed Charlie Kirk, that knocked down the Twin Towers, that led to two assassination attempts on President Trump, it just gets keeping getting worse and worse,” Cruz said.

El-Sayed agreed in the CNN interview that politics was becoming too consumed by hate.

“When you hear that kind of call to violence, it should be shuddering to all of us,” he said. “I hope that everybody who heard that is going to call it out for what it is: a call for violence that ought to be condemned across the board.”

Rep. Katherine Clark of Massachusetts, the second highest-ranking Democrat in the House, condemned the shouts in an X post, saying “every single Republican” should as well. And Rep. Debbie Dingell, a Michigan Democrat, also weighed in, calling them “clear hate.”

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