One thing that has made Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) so divisive is his unfailing ability to say exactly what is on his mind. From the beginning, Sen. Cruz has made his objective clear: He is in Washington to serve his constituents in Texas. And during an interview with ABC News set to air Sunday, Sen. Cruz reaffirms that very point, explaining he is not in Washington to make friends.
“Ted Cruz and Mike Lee are the two best guys in the Senate,” Glenn said on radio this morning. “They're principled. They're decent. They're being excoriated by everybody. And they're not going to stop. They don't care. They said: This is what you asked me to do. I ran on this. You asked me to stand by the Constitution. You asked me to do these things. I will do them. And they're very bright – two of the brightest guys in Washington. So here is Ted Cruz.”
REPORTER: How much do your colleagues just despise you right now on the floor? I mean I hear some really strong language from your own fellow Republican senators.
CRUZ: Listen. You know --
REPORTER: You made some enemies in this battle.
CRUZ: There's an old saying that politics, it ain't beanbag. And, you know, I'm not serving in office because I desperately needed 99 new friends in the U.S. Senate. And you know what? There is an inverse relationship. Given the choice between being reviled in Washington D.C. and appreciated in Texas, or reviled in Texas and appreciated in Washington, I would take the former 100 out of 100 times.
And I'll tell you: When I go back home in Texas, I have a job that I was elected to do and that's to represent 26 million Texans, to fight for them, and they are frustrated just like people all over this country. Their top priority is jobs and economic growth, and Washington isn't listening to them. But there's a difference. You want to draw me into discussing specific individual senators. I'm not going to do that. I will say that the reason this deal, the lousy deal was reached last night, is because unfortunately Senate Republicans made the choice not to support House Republicans. I wish Senate Republicans had united. I tried to do everything I could to urge Senate Republicans to come together and to stand with House Republicans because --
REPORTER: So you're saying more than that, though. You're saying not only did they not support House conservatives, that they attacked House conservatives, Republicans.
CRUZ: Well, and I think it was unfortunate. I think it was unfortunate that you saw multiple Senate Republicans going on television, attacking House conservatives, attacking the efforts to defund Obamacare, saying it cannot win, it's a fool's error and we will lose, this must fail, that is a recipe for losing the fight, and it's a shame. I really wish Senate Republicans had simply stood with House Republicans and said, “You know what? We're going to be unified listening to the American people.”
“What awful, hateful rhetoric, and he's right. He's right. You know, they doomed themselves to failure from the very beginning. Because what did they do? I mean really think about what the Republicans have done. The Republicans said that they were going to do everything they can to stop Obamacare. And maybe we should have said more specifically: Is there a period there? Is it: We're going to do everything we can to stop Obamacare from being inflicted on us in Congress. Or are you doing everything you can do to stop Obamacare, period,” Glenn asked. “They did everything they could to stop it from being inflicted on them but not on us. And as soon as they got their special deal, then they were done.”
As Glenn explained, what we witnessed in the Senate is actually a move right out of the progressive playbook. It is Rules for Radicals from so-called Republicans.
“It doesn't even make sense. It just doesn't even make sense. Unless you're playing the game that the White House plays. I mean, look. Let me show you, it's Rules For Radicals. That's Rules For Radicals. Do you see what John McCain, Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Peter King [did],” Glenn asked. “What they did is Rules For Radicals: Isolate, call them names, call them extremists, call them every name in the book. And that's what they did… So when you have that kind of rhetoric going on behind the scenes, what are they doing? They're doing Saul Alinsky.”
Front page image courtesy of the AP