Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) faced some unexpected guests at his Obamacare town hall on Tuesday night, enduring a pair of hecklers multiple times during his speech.
Video footage from NBC News shows Cruz' audience shouting "USA! USA! USA!" to compete with the protesters. The Washington Post reports that Cruz also received chants of “you have health care, we should too!” from the hecklers.
“Thank you for sharing your views," he said, according to the paper. "You know, part of the First Amendment is about respecting others.”
The line of "USA! USA!" chanters grew more vociferous, before Cruz interjected to make a "couple of observations" about the protesters.
"They should have health care and Obamacare is causing more and more people struggling to climb the economic ladder to lose their health care," Cruz said.
Cruz then accused Obama's group, Organizing For America, for being responsible for the protests.
“Every time they’ve come to protest in Texas, they’ve sent a small group of people, and you all have outnumbered them two, and three, and four to one," he said to the crowd.
Cruz's campaign against Obamacare has had multiple destinations over the last few months. Earlier in August, he received a standing ovation at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa. In late July, Cruz also admitted in Arlington, Va. that there were not enough votes at the time to defund the health care law.
Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly stated that the protesters were chanting "USA! USA!" at Cruz. Those chants came from Cruz supporters in the audience.
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