Ted Cruz goes off the rails: ‘ISIS is executing homosexuals — you want to talk about gay rights?’

Sen. Ted Cruz clashed with reporters on Tuesday, accusing them of focusing too much on marriage equality, the Texas Tribune reported.

"Is there something about the left -- and I am going to put the media in this category -- that is obsessed with sex?" the Republican presidential candidate said after a fundraiser in Beaumont, Texas. "ISIS is executing homosexuals -- you want to talk about gay rights? This week was a very bad week for gay rights because the expansion of ISIS, the expansion of radical, theocratic, Islamic zealots that crucify Christians, that behead children and that murder homosexuals."

Cruz reportedly complained after getting multiple questions regarding same-sex marriage, telling reporters that Islamic State "ought to be concerning you far more than asking six questions all on the same topic."

He also criticized one reporter, saying they were cribbing their questions from MSNBC.

"They have very few viewers and they are a radical and extreme partisan outlet," the senator said.

However, Cruz told KBMT-TV that he had no animosity toward LGBTQ Americans, while defending the state ban against same-sex marriages.

"Scripture commands us to love everybody. And what I have been talking about, with respect to same sex marriage, is the constitution, which is what we should all be focused on," he said. "The constitution gives marriage to elected state legislatures. It doesn't give the power of marriage to a president or to un-elected judges to tear down the decisions enacted by democratically elected state legislatures."

According to a new Gallup poll, Cruz's views run counter to that of an increasing majority of Americans. As Agence France-Press reported, the survey shows 60 percent of respondents supported marriage equality, an all-time high.

[h/t Salon]