All Aboard Ted Cruz’s Radical Left Express Train!!

Sen. Ted Cruz spent several hours in the meme factory on Thursday, crafting an expert burn that just… didn’t quite land. In response to a Washington Post article about Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s Amtrak trip through parts of Pennsylvania and Ohio on Wednesday, Cruz made a meme of what he imagines to be the “Biden Express.” It’s an Amtrak train full of so-called socialists heading to “Radical Left,” which appears to be a destination in Cruz’s meme. 

Cruz's accompanying tweet reads, “Biden may be the Democrat Party’s nominee, but we know who is driving the train.” And apparently Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described Democratic Socialist, is that someone. In the meme, Sanders is conducting the train, which also seats Reps. Ilhan Omar, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, and Adam Schiff, along with Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, and the most radical of them all: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. 

According to Cruz, the train is headed toward Exit 2020, which is obviously on the left hand side because the radical left only goes in one direction and that is left. Though, it should be noted that trains don't usually have exit signs. But there are a lot of other things that don’t make sense about the meme. For example, Cruz is implying that Biden’s campaign is run by socialists, as other Republicans before him have also claimed, but it seems strange that Biden isn’t even on the train. I can’t imagine where he might be instead, given that the mean was a response to Biden's recent Amtrak trip.

Further, the fact that Cuomo landed a spot on the train might seem random at first glance — and it definitely is. But it’s possible that Cruz included the New York governor on Radical Express train after getting into a heated argument with his brother during a CNN segment on Wednesday night, during which Chris Cuomo reminded the senator that President Trump once called his wife ugly. Cruz was not happy with the exchange, telling Cuomo it's the reason "why you don't have a lot of Republicans that want to come on your show." So he shot back a day later by putting the other Cuomo on the socialist train.

But perhaps the best take on Cruz’s attempt at a meme came from Ocasio-Cortez, who shot back at the Republican senator in a tweet of her own, writing, “I must say, Ted Cruz making poorly executed memes while riding in the quiet car of the White Supremacist Express is pretty on brand for both him and 2020.”