Tag: Sen. Cruz

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.

‘Horrifying’: Sen. Cruz Flew Without Mask From Houston To Dallas

Although Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has recently encouraged mask wearing in response to the coronavirus pandemic, some far-right Republicans are still reluctant to wear face masks in public. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, according to AmericaBlog reporter John Aravosis, wasn’t wearing a mask at all during an American Airlines flight from Houston to Dallas on Sunday, July 12 — which is a violation of the airline’s rules.

Aravosis tweeted, “I just confirmed that Ted Cruz went the entire one-hour-eight-minute flight from Houston to Dallas and never put on his mask. So he wasn’t just drinking coffee for a minute.”

Cruz’ defenders have argued that the senator was photographed on the flight when he was drinking coffee. But Twitter user @hossehenad explained, “For those trying to argue that he was drinking, it’s not hard to have a mask on and undo one side to take a sip then put it back on. Most people take their time drinking coffee.” 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.

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.

Ted Cruz’s claim that two-thirds of the Hurricane Sandy bill ‘had nothing to do with Sandy

The following article by Glenn Kessler was posted on the Washington Post website August 29, 2017:

The Texas senator repeats myths about the funding for Sandy relief, which led him to oppose the 2013 bill. (Meg Kelly/The Washington Post)

“The problem with that particular bill is it became a $50 billion bill that was filled with unrelated pork. Two-thirds of that bill had nothing to do with Sandy.”
— Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), interview with NBC’s Katy Tur, Aug. 28, 2017

Hypocrisy watch! Now that Houston and much of southeastern Texas is swamped by Hurricane Harvey, critics (including Northeastern lawmakers) have complained that Texas senators and members of Congress are seeking emergency federal aid but refused to back relief for the victims of Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Continue reading “Ted Cruz’s claim that two-thirds of the Hurricane Sandy bill ‘had nothing to do with Sandy”