Ted Cruz says ‘Let’s stop attacking pedophiles’ in embarrassing gaffe during rant about crime

“How about we all come together and say ‘let’s stop attacking pedophiles,’” he said.

Not sure why they put a "must" in the headline. Apparently proof-reading is optional at the independent.

"gaffe" implies he has mad some attempt to backtrack or present a corrected sentence. He said it.

Journalism is so cooked

I still don't know what word he actually intended to use there instead, unless he was trying to normalize the concept of accepting pedophiles.