US Senator Ted Cruz apologizes for offensive remark about Nigerians

On Monday Oct. 21st, US Republican Senator Ted Cruz told a rally that Nigerian email scammers have been hired to run the Obamacare website, a comment that a lot of Nigerians found offensive. After being bombarded with several phone calls from Nigerians in Houston and all across the US, the office of Ted Cruz has issued a statement from the Senator apologizing for what he said.

 

The full statement reads:

 

It’s unfortunate that we’re living in a time where just about every joke can be misconstrued to cause offense to someone.

To the good people of Nigeria - a beautiful nation where my wife lived briefly as the child of missionaries - no offense was intended.

I am fully appreciative of the range of mutual economic and security interests that make Nigeria an important friend to the United States.

And even to those few unscrupulous email scammers who were the subject of the joke, I apologize to you for the unfair comparison to the utterly dysfunctional Obamacare website.