Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) fell apart when pressed by Fox News today on how exactly he will stop President Obama from implementing his executive orders on immigration.
Video:
Transcript via Fox News:
WALLACE: Senator, the question then, of course, is how to respond, and there’s quite a split within your party.
As I understand it, what you’re saying is that the Republican should vote to fund the governments for all departments except one, and that is that you would attach a rider, an amendment, to funding for the Department of Homeland Security, which handles immigration, taking back or rescinding his executive action, and that the thought is if he vetoes that, he’s responsible for shutting down the department.
The problem is that’s almost exactly what you did with the government shutdown across the entire government in 2013 with Obamacare, and it backfired badly on your party.
CRUZ: Well, Chris, look, I’m going to suggest a very simple proposition. All across this country, Republicans campaigned, saying: if you elect a Republican Senate, we will stop President Obama’s illegal amnesty.
My very simple suggestion to my colleagues and friends in the Republican Party is we need to honor what we said. We need to actually do what we said two weeks ago on the campaign trail.
Now, I’ve laid out a detailed, systematic plan —
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: Sir, because we have limited time, is that what you’re saying you would do? You would attach a rider to funding for just the one Department of Homeland Security?
CRUZ: Chris, I’ve laid out a detailed, systematic plan for what Congress should do? We should use the constitutional checks and balances that we have to rein in the abuse of power of the executive.
Step number one that I have called for is the incoming majority leader should announce if the president implements this lawless amnesty, that the Senate will not confirm any executive or judicial nominees, other than vital national security positions, for the next two years, unless and until the president ends this lawless amnesty.
WALLACE: Sir, let me pick — if I may, let me pick up on that.
(CROSSTALK)
CRUZ: That is an explicit authority given to the Senate.
WALLACE: If I may, let me pick up right on that, because — are you saying the Senate should refuse to confirm Loretta Lynch, the president’s new nominee for attorney general and thereby leave Eric Holder, who you don’t like very much, in that position even longer?
CRUZ: Chris, what I’m saying is we should use the constitutional checks and balances we have to rein in the executive. You know, if the read the Federalist Papers, in the Federalist Papers, our Framers talked about a president who would behave like a monarch, that would rule by diktat and decree rather than following the Constitution —
(CROSSTALK)
WALLACE: Sir, I understand that. I’m asking a direct question, though. Would you — would you block Loretta Lynch’s confirmation as attorney general and leave Eric Holder in the job?
CRUZ: In my view, the majority leader should decline to bring to the floor of the Senate any nomination other than vital national security positions. Now, that is a serious and major step. It is a power the majority leader has, and nobody else has any ability to alter — if the majority leader announced that, it would impose real consequences on the president and the administration.
WALLACE: All right. I —
CRUZ: And the second big check we’ve got, the second constitutional power we’ve got is the power of the purse, and we should fund one at a time the critical priorities of the federal government, but also use the power of the purse to attach riders. We’ve got to demonstrate that the campaign words Republicans used on the trail were more than just talk, that we’re willing to honor our commitment.
In other words, Ted Cruz’s plan to stop President Obama is to trigger another government shutdown.
Cruz avoided Wallace’s repeated questions about what his plan was to stop the president, because the Texas senator doesn’t have a plan. His idea is to continue to do what Republicans have been doing to this president for years. He is urging Republicans to obstruct and block everything while triggering more crises.
Sen. Cruz tried to bury the fact that he’s got nothing behind a lot of unrelated babble about the constitution and the Founding Fathers. When Fox News put the tiniest bit of heat on Cruz by asking for specifics, he fell apart and went into filibuster mode. Only when repeatedly pushed, would Cruz admit that his plan is to attach riders to the funding bill that defund part of the government.
Ted Cruz is trying to shut down the government again. He won’t say it, and later in the same interview he rewrote history by claiming that it was President Obama and Harry Reid who shut down the government last year, but the nation has played this game before. The Democrats aren’t going to pass anything that isn’t a clean funding bill. President Obama won’t sign anything that isn’t a clean funding bill.
If Republicans try to attach riders to the December funding bill that would defund the Homeland Security, the Senate won’t pass it. If Republicans try their rider stunt after taking control of the Congress in January, President Obama will veto the bill.
Ted Cruz has nothing, and his performance on Fox News revealed that as soon as the Texas senator is pushed in the slightest, he crumbles and his house of cards comes tumbling down.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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