Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) disagreed on natural rights and prompted others online to join the debate on whether they are God-given or granted by the government.
“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,” Kaine said Wednesday during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
“It’s a theocratic regime that bases its rule on Shia law,” Kaine said. “And they do it because they believe that they understand what natural rights are from their Creator. So the statement that our rights do not come from our laws or our governments is extremely troubling.”
As the hearing continued, Kaine left the room. Cruz still responded to Kaine’s comments.
“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.”
The casual condemnation of America’s founding principle is exactly what is wrong with today’s Democrat Party.
Government protects our God-given rights, it does not create or destroy them. pic.twitter.com/f4QZ5KaegN
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) September 4, 2025
“If you don’t believe me,” Cruz added, “then you can believe perhaps the most prominent Virginian to ever serve, Thomas Jefferson.”
Cruz was referring to Jefferson’s words in the Declaration of Independence, which read, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”
“I have to say, it is stunning to me that the principle that God has given us natural rights is now deemed by Democrats some radical and dangerous notion,” Cruz said. “Mr. Jefferson was right when he wrote those words. Government exists to protect those rights.”
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Bishop of the Diocese of Winona-Rochester, Minnesota, Robert Barron piped in on the debate on X.
“It just strikes me as extraordinary that a major American politician [Kaine] wouldn’t understand this really elemental part of our system,” Barron said. “God help us. I mean that literally, God help us if we say our rights are coming to us from the government. That gives the government, indeed, God-like power.”
“Ted Cruz just took @timkaine to school. He doesn’t even know the most famous phrase in our country’s founding document!” the Virginia Republican Party wrote on X.
“This should terrify every Virginian – Democrats have completely abandoned our nation’s founding beliefs. Democrats actually think your rights come from THEM. That means they believe they can take away ALL of your rights whenever they want,” the Party said.
“This is a remarkable moment from Tim Kaine,” talk show host Matt Walsh said on X. “He just announced that the core foundational principle of our country, affirmed in the Declaration of Independence, is ‘extremely troubling’ and ‘theocratic.’”
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“He should be immediately removed from office. Anyone who rejects our nation’s foundational principles is obviously not fit to serve,” Walsh said.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Kaine’s office for comment.