Exorcising Ted Cruz

I normally try to keep Augoeides as politically neutral as I can and only touch on electoral politics when something appropriate for the blog surfaces, like Jeb Bush palling around with vampires or the New York witches who tried to hex Donald Trump (which, by the way, at this point seems to have failed spectacularly).

But here's something you don't see every day on the campaign trail. During a speech in New Hampshire, which holds its presidential primary today, two men in the audience attempted to perform an exorcism on Republican candidate Ted Cruz.

According to The Dallas Morning News, Cruz had just finished his stump speech when the men began shouting at the candidate. “Ted Cruz look in the mirror and let the evil spirit depart!” one man exclaimed. “He’s possessed by a demon!”

As the crowd booed, Cruz suggested that the “very confused fellow” was part of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ campaign. “He’s possessed by a demon!” the man yelled. “The demon has to leave. That’s why the body is so disgusting to look at!”

A second man holding a mirror urged Cruz to look at himself so “the evil can confront itself.” “Evil body! Evil spirit. Look yourself in the mirror!” the man said.

Given the crowded Republican primary, odds are that this stunt was probably some sort of joke or bid for publicity. It is very weird, though, that political agitators would choose this particular method to get their point across, and I don't see why someone from the Sanders campaign would bother, since Sanders is not running against Cruz in the Republican primary. On the other hand, Cruz won the Iowa Republican Caucus just last week, which puts him in the sights of every other Republican candidate hoping to unseat him.

Whoever was behind the attempted exorcism, I think that it has to be a first. I certainly don't remember hearing of anyone trying to exorcise a political candidate on the campaign trail, and I think if it had happened before I would have heard about it.