Democratic Senator Tim Kaine from Virginia, in a hearing on Wednesday, told the room:
The notion that rights don't come from laws, and don't come from the government, but come from the Creator... That's what the Iranian government believes... So the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.
Senator Ted Cruz blasted Senator Kaine's comments.
So, Senator Kaine said in this hearing, that he found it a radical and dangerous notion that you would say our rights came from God and not from government. I just walked into the hearing as he was saying that and I almost fell out of my chair. Because that radical and dangerous notion in his words, is literally the founding principle upon which the United States of America was created. And if you do not believe me, and you made reference to this Mr. Barnes, then you can believe, perhaps the most prominent Virginian to ever serve, Thomas Jefferson who wrote in the Declaration of Independence: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator' not by the government, not by the Democratic National Committee, but by God...
...with certain unalienable Rights.
Our rights don’t come from government or the DNC.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 3, 2025
They come from God. @timkaine, I suggest the Dems go back and read the words of our Founding Fathers. pic.twitter.com/QRmhTcbbOH
Senator Kaine didn’t misspeak; he simply revealed the chasm between today’s Democratic Party and the very principles that founded this great nation. If believing rights come from a higher power is “troubling,” then Kaine’s quarrel isn’t with Ted Cruz. It’s with Jefferson, Madison, the Declaration, and America herself.