MLK’s daughter fires back at Ted Cruz for invoking her father in Twitter rant against the NAACP

Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Texas) was recently criticized for his attempt to invoke Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as he pushed back against the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) "travel advisory" for Blacks in the United States.

According to The Daily Beast, Cruz took to Twitter with a link to a Washington Times story reporting on the NAACP warning to Black Americans planning to visit the state of Florida as summer approaches.

“Please be advised that Florida is openly hostile toward African-Americans, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals,” the organization's notice reads. “Before traveling to Florida, please understand that the State of Florida devalues and marginalizes the contributions of and the challenges faced by African-Americans and other minorities."

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The organization pointed to Florida's newly-enacted laws, which the news outlet describes as "anti-diversity initiatives." The NAACP warned that the new laws in Florida make the state “hostile to Black Americans.”

But despite the evidence to support the NAACP's arguments, Cruz insisted that the warning was “bizarre” and “utterly dishonest.”

He also argued that the NAACP has devolved since its inception in the 1950s and 60s as he claimed Dr. King would be "ashamed" of what it has become today.

"This is bizarre," Cruz tweeted. "And utterly dishonest. In the 1950s & 1960s, the NAACP did extraordinary good helping lead the civil rights movement. Today, Dr. King would be ashamed of how profoundly they’ve lost their way."

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Dr. King's youngest daughter Bernice King took to Twitter with a fiery response refuting the senator's remarks.

"What my father would be deeply concerned about is the harmful, discriminatory legislation in Florida,” King tweeted.

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