Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) doesn't understand why there's backlash over North Carolina's transgender bathroom law, and he's especially confused by GOP presidential candidate opponent Donald Trump's defense of transgender rights.
"Have we gone stark-raving nuts?" Cruz said at a rally in Maryland on Thursday, NBC News reports.
The presidential hopeful and noted soup eater said he's worried about "repulsive perverts" who would use the law -- which bars people from using a public restroom that doesn't correspond to their gender assigned at birth -- to get into his children's restrooms.
"When you deal with people who are repulsive perverts and criminals -- there are some bad people in the world and we shouldn't be facilitating putting little girls alone in a bathroom with grown, adult men. That is just a bad, bad, bad idea," he said in an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck on Thursday.
He took particular umbrage to Trump's comments earlier Thursday, The Hill reports. The GOP front-runner called North Carolina's mandate unnecessary and said he'd let Caitlyn Jenner use any bathroom she wanted in Trump Tower.
"North Carolina, what they're going through with all the business that is leaving and strife -- and it's on both sides -- you leave it the way it is," Trump told the "Today" show.
Cruz tweeted his astonishment in a post Thursday:
Cruz isn't alone -- even Republicans are surprised by Trump's stance, as North Carolina's law has become a hot button issue that's polarizing the GOP. Conservative strategist Greg Mueller told The New York Times that it could cost Trump some of his support network.
“There’s a lot of Republicans that are very uncomfortable with this issue, to say the least, or think it’s ridiculous that we’re going down this path and some people believe putting our children at risk,” Mueller told the paper. “For somebody who is trying to build a coalition of conservatives and evangelicals, and then maybe some Democratic votes to get you into the White House, you are taking somewhat of a political risk in the position he took this morning.”