The people of Virginia have spoken, and on Tuesday, economics professor Dave Brat defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) in convincing fashion in Virginia’s 7th Congressional District. On radio this morning, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), who won a surprising election himself just a couple years ago, joined Glenn to discuss the shockwave Brat’s “stunning” victory has sent around Washington, D.C.
“Last night was a stunning election result. The results of last night are reverberating throughout the Capitol and throughout the Congress,” Cruz said. “Eric Cantor is a good man, a smart, capable man, but people across the country are fed up with what's happening in Washington. And they are fed up with the federal government growing and growing and growing, with our national debt getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and with politicians of both parties not listening to the people who elected them.”
While Democrats in Congress and the mainstream media are already trying to paint Brat as an extremist, right-wing Tea Party-type, Glenn asked Cruz how much an upset like this effects the psyche of those in D.C.
“How scared are these guys,” Glenn asked.
“Washington, D.C. didn't want to listen. The fight to make D.C. listen is not an easy fight. There's a reason people job are in power 20, 30 years. They hold on to power, use a lot of money, and they use the entrenched force to try to hold onto it,” Cruz said. “But I'll tell you things like last night get their attention. Things like the Mississippi Senate race get their attention.”
Last week in Mississippi, Mississippi State Senator Chris McDaniel (R) won the popular vote and forced a runoff against four-decade incumbent Senator Thad Cochran (R-MS). The runoff is set for Tuesday, June 24, and McDaniel continue to enjoy a lead in the polls. These types of things, according to Cruz, get people’s attention.
“I've said many times… I think the biggest divide we have in this country is not between Republicans and Democrats. It is between entrenched politicians in Washington, in both parties and the American people,” Cruz explained. “We've got to get the people to rise up and demand that we get back to basic common sense principle, that we get back to living within our means, not bankrupting the country, following the Constitution, restoring America's leadership in the world. These are basic principals of who we are.”
“Will Washington demagogue anyone standing up for that and call them an extremist? Yes, that's what Washington does,” he continued. “Who cares? We need to focus on energizing and mobilizing the American people to bring our nation back to the first principles of liberty and the Constitution that have made America strong in the first place.”
Glenn also spoke to Cruz about the growing crisis at our southern border. While the Obama Administration has labeled the recent influx of unaccompanied immigrant children a “humanitarian crisis,” Glenn asked Cruz what can be done at this point to halt the Administration’s push for amnesty.
“What is happening right now on the border particularly with kids is heartbreaking,” Cruz said. “And it is the direct consequence of President Obama's lawlessness, his refusal to enforce the law.”
Cruz explained that parents are now handing their children over to drug cartels to help get them into the U.S. In many cases, these children are assaulted – both physically and sexually – and sold into prostitution.
“It should make us weep at the idea of children being handed over to cruel, brutal drug traffickers, and all of this is the direct consequence of when the President of the United States tells people to just send your kids up here and we will let them in and ignore the law,” Cruz said. “Those incentives have produced this humanitarian crisis… I think it's quite likely the President's intention, just like he did a couple years ago, to unilaterally grant another big amnesty because he thinks it will help him politically.”
While the lawlessness of the Obama Administration and so much of what is happening in Washington is cause for frustration and concern, Cruz remains optimistic.
“Let met give you some encouragement, which is: As bad as it is getting… it is waking people up,” Cruz said. “You look at the results in Virginia last night, Dave Brat was outspent almost 50 to 1, and yet the people woke up and said, ‘We're tired of business as usual in Washington.’ Look at the Senate election results in Mississippi, where the fourth longest serving member of the senate is suddenly found himself in a runoff.”
With that in mind, Cruz believes the this midterm election cycle and 2016 are going to be vitally important.
“The biggest thing we can do is rise up and demand that our elected officials in both parties listen to the people… hold every elected official accountable,” he concluded. “And I think 2014 is going to be a very strong election year, but I think 2016's going to be even stronger because sometimes things have to get really bad to startle people out of their slumber.”
