Ted Cruz Inadvertently Boosts Sales of Books He Opposes

When Ted Cruz grilled Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson during her Senate confirmation hearing this week, he held up a few books as props. He displayed them as examples of what he views as far-left extremism, but the gesture appears to have had the unintended effect of boosting sales, reports the Houston Chronicle. For example, The End of Policing by Alex Vitale has since risen to No. 1 on Amazon's sociology of race relations section, a rise celebrated in a tweet by the author himself. "Every purchase now comes with a vial of Ted Cruz tears," he joked.

The 2017 book "analyzes modern policing and makes the case for defunding the police," per the Washington Post. Sales also have risen for other books Cruz held up, including one called Antiracist Baby. It has become the top children's book and No. 2 overall on Amazon, per the Post. In discussing the latter book, Cruz notably asked Jackson, "Do you agree with this book that is being taught to kids that babies are racist?" per Forbes. He linked the books to her because she sits on the board of the Georgetown Day School, which has "either assigned or recommended" them, he said. The curriculum "is filled and overflowing with critical race theory," he added. Jackson, for her part, sought to deflect Cruz's line of questioning:

• The books: "I have not reviewed any of those books, any of those ideas—they don’t come up in my work as a judge, which I am, respectfully, here to address," she said.
• The babies: After a long pause following Cruz's question about whether she thought babies were racist, she said: "I do not believe that any child should be made to feel as though they are racist, or as though they are not valued, or as though they are less than, that they are victims, that they are oppressors—I don’t believe in any of that."
• Critical race theory: When pressed by Cruz, she defined it as "an academic theory about the ways in which race interacts with various institutions," per the Hill. She added: "It doesn’t come up in my work as a judge. It’s never something that I studied or relied on and it wouldn’t be something I would rely on if I was on the Supreme Court."

(More Ted Cruz stories.)