Tag: Ted Cruz

Trump adds Tom Cotton and Ted Cruz to list of potential Supreme Court justices

Axios logo

President Trump unveiled Wednesday his revamped list of potential Supreme Court justices that includes 20 new names, including Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Why it matters: Top aides and advisers to the president urged him months ago to put together a new list of justices ahead of Election Day to pump up his base and remind them why a Republican needs to remain in the White House.

Ted Cruz spews disgust at ‘waiters and waitresses’ who he says don’t deserve $600 unemployment checks

AlterNet logoSen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sunday blasted waiters, waitresses and bus boys who he said don’t deserve an additional $600 per week for being unemployed during the coronavirus pandemic.

In an interview on CBS, Cruz told host Margaret Brennan that restaurant owners are at a disadvantage because their staff doesn’t want to work while the pandemic is ongoing.

“We need to do significantly more to fight the disease,” Cruz opined. “At the same time, we have an absolute economic catastrophe. We have over 44 million Americans [who] have lost their job and we have got to get America back to work.” Continue reading.

Reopening economy emerges as new political battleground

The Hill logoAs Washington policymakers scramble to contain the fallout from the coronavirus crisis, the question of how quickly to reopen the economy has emerged as the latest political battleground dividing the two parties.

Behind President Trump, Republicans are increasingly eager to get businesses reopened and customers into their doors, warning that a prolonged economic shutdown — even in the name of protecting public health — will do more harm to the nation’s long-term viability than the coronavirus itself.

“It is time for Texans to go back to work,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told a local news station on Wednesday. “Because the consequences of this economic shutdown are serious and dire.” Continue reading.

These members are self-quarantining after being exposed to coronavirus patients

Lawmakers interacted with people later diagnosed with coronavirus

At least six members of Congress have said they interacted with individuals who tested positive for coronavirus and many have vowed to stay away from Capitol Hill temporarily.

Republican Reps. Doug Collins of Georgia and Matt Gaetz of Florida, as well as California Democrat Julia Brownley, announced Monday they were self-quarantining. Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said in separate statements Sunday they would also self-quarantine after interacting with a person who later tested positive for COVID-19.

Gaetz, Collins, Gosar and Cruz said they were exposed to a coronavirus patient at the Conservative Political Action Conference, which typically attracts thousands of conservatives and was held Feb. 26-29 at National Harbor in Maryland. Continue reading.

GOP scramble is on to succeed Donald Trump in 2024

From Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo to Nikki Haley and Ted Cruz, the cast of potential White House hopefuls is out in force at CPAC.

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD — President Donald Trump is locked in a tough reelection battle, yet the Republicans looking to succeed him are already circling.

They’re visiting early primary states, reaching out to major donors, and — in one instance — even running commercials in Iowa. But perhaps the most overt display of ambition is on display this week here at the Conservative Political Action Conference, a rite of passage for White House aspirants eager to audition before thousands of activists whose support can be critical down the line.

Those with the most prominent speaking roles — a list that includes the likes of Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — are regarded as likely 2024 contenders. At Wednesday evening’s opening reception, former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley was mobbed by fans, including a woman who wore a “Nikki 2024” baseball cap. Haley took a picture with the woman and signed the hat. Continue reading.

An old Ted Cruz quote proves he had a very different opinion on the core of Trump’s impeachment just months ago

AlterNet logoRepublican Sen. Ted Cruz Texas was once a fierce opponent of Donald Trump in the 2016 election, but he’s now become a happy warrior for the president, especially in the face of impeachment.

But as Cruz has settled into his defense that Trump did nothing wrong in the Ukraine scandal, his attitude is in stark contradiction with worries he expressed just months ago, in May of 2019.

At the time, Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia investigation had been released by the Justice Department, and Attorney General Bill Barr was defending his own response to the end of the probe. Cruz, along with other Republicans, were proclaiming Trump’s supposed vindication and raising alarms about the origins of the Russia investigation under former President Barack Obama. Continue reading.

Sen. Ted Cruz echoes debunked claims that Ukraine interfered in 2016 election

Washington Post logoIn a fiery back-and-forth on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) declared there is “considerable evidence” that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election, echoing debunked claims recently spread by other GOP leaders.

The show’s host, Chuck Todd, asked the senator if he believed Ukraine had attempted to sway the 2016 election.

“I do,” Cruz said.

Todd’s eyes grew wide and he raised his eyebrows in surprise: “You do?”

Continue reading

At Hearing, Ted Cruz Accidentally Blows Up GOP Conspiracy Theories

While Democrats grilled Attorney General Bill Barr on Wednesday over his mishandling of the end of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee used their time at the hearing to stoke the flames of conspiracy theories about the investigation into President Donald Trump and his campaign.

Essentially, the GOP and right-wing media have been arguing for years that the Russia probe was built on a flimsy basis that was really just a pretextual excuse to inappropriately surveil (or spy on!) the Trump campaign. This would seem to be completely belied by the Mueller report, which shows that there were many credible bases for investigating crimes, including extensive contacts between people connected to the Russian government and the Trump campaign. And while all that was going on, the Kremlin was, in fact, conducting a wide-ranging criminal effort to interfere in the 2016 election, efforts the Trump campaign knew about and welcomed.

In a back-and-forth between Sen. Ted Cruz and Barr on Wednesday, though, the Texas Republican accidentally elicited information that also completely undermines from another angle the theory that President Barack Obama’s Justice Department and FBI were somehow engaged in an effort to target the Trump campaign.

View the complete May 1 article by Cody Fenwick on the National Memo website here.

Five key takeaways from the Russian indictments

The following article by Niall Stanage was posted on the Hill website February 17, 2018:

Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein Credit: Mary Turner/Reuters

New indictments of 13 Russians who allegedly meddled in the 2016 election set the political world abuzz on Friday.

The charges were first posted on the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) website but were fleshed out by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosensteinat a hastily convened news conference.

What are the key political ramifications from the new charges?

Fire and fury from Trump?

President Trump is hypersensitive to any suggestion that his victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016 was illegitimate. These new indictments are sure to get under his skin for precisely that reason. Continue reading “Five key takeaways from the Russian indictments”

Cruz Spokesman Saw Suspicious Twitter Activity in 2016 Campaign

The following article by Rollcall Staff was posted on their website October 4, 2017:

Texas Republican drew “torrent of negative comments” when he criticized Trump

The former campaign spokesman for Sen. Ted Cruz said whenever he criticized Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign, his Twitter feed was attacked by trolls of suspicious origin. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

Ron Nehring, campaign spokesman for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz during the 2016 presidential campaign, said Tuesday that online trolls of unclear origin flooded his Twitter feed whenever he was critical of then-candidate Donald Trump, but not when he attacked other GOP candidates.

“If I had said something critical about Marco Rubio, or John Kasich, or Ben Carson, there was no response on Twitter whatsoever, dead,” Nehring said about his cable news appearances on behalf of Cruz during last year’s campaign. “However, if I was critical of Donald Trump, I would get a torrent of negative comments on Twitter.” Continue reading “Cruz Spokesman Saw Suspicious Twitter Activity in 2016 Campaign”