Entertainment

‘True Blood’ Sinks Fangs Into Tea Party with Massacre at Ted Cruz Fundraiser Held at Bush Library

Controversy

On Sunday night’s episode of the kinky HBO vampire/werewolves/fairies series, two characters dress like stereotypical Republicans and go undercover at a Ted Cruz fundraising event. Chaos ensues. Ted Cruz, meanwhile, did not respond to our request for comment.

articles/2014/07/21/true-blood-digs-fangs-into-tea-party-with-massacre-at-ted-cruz-fundraiser-held-at-bush-library/140721-swin-true_blood-tease_shfo65
John P. Johnson/HBO

True Blood, the HBO series created by Alan Ball that’s full of vampire carnage and aberrant sex, frequently gets political. The whole thing is essentially about LGBT rights and civil rights, enough so that GLAAD declared it the most gay-friendly show on television in 2010. Former Republican presidential contenders Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann actually inspired one of the storylines involving violent, theocratic bloodsuckers. And the show is often critical of the Christian right. (Indeed, the show has maintained quite the liberal streak over its seven seasons.)

And on Sunday night’s episode, former president George W. Bush and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) made an appearance.

Well, not really. In one scene, vampires Eric and Pam (played by Alexander Skarsgård and Kristin Bauer van Straten, respectively) go undercover at a Ted Cruz fundraising event thrown at the George W. Bush Presidential Library in Dallas. They dress as wealthy Texan stereotypes in order to blend in with the conservative crowd.

ADVERTISEMENT

"Of all the horrible things I've seen in the last hundred years, this could be the most disturbing," Pam says to Eric. The episode may have also coined the derogatory term, “Republicunt."

As you could have probably guessed (this being True Blood, and all), the whole affair degenerates into a massacre. (To watch clips of this scene, click here and here.) Basically, yakuza thugs wielding assault weapons crash the Ted Cruz fundraiser and ruin everyone’s evening in the most fatal ways possible.

Sen. Cruz’s office did not respond to a request for comment regarding the televised vampire/yakuza bloodbath. If it’s any consolation to the Republican lawmaker and tea-party champion, True Blood has also featured anti-vampire death-squad members who roamed Louisiana wearing grinning Obama masks.

Now, here’s a TV spot for Sunday’s episode that includes shots of the fictional Cruz gala:

Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here.