Ted Cruz Ramps Up Call for Mitch McConnell to Quit Over ‘Spectacularly Stupid’ Border Deal Politics: ‘Well Past Time’
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called his party leadership in the U.S. Senate “spectacularly stupid” on Thursday as he reiterated his call for Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-MY) to step down as minority leader. Cruz also said he supports aid to Ukraine, but intends to vote against it until a border deal is stuck.
“Do you want Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to step down?” Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney asked Cruz.
“Look, I think it is well past time. I think there have been a lot of enormous mistakes. But this mistake was the worst,” Cruz said of the bipartisan border security bill endorsed by the Border Patrol Union.
“And throughout this battle, he goes out and what he is saying is benefiting Chuck Schumer and the Democrats,” Cruz added, pivoting to politics:
Why did Chuck Schumer do this misguided border deal? He knew that he wasn’t going to give in on anything to actually secure the border. The reason he did it is Schumer wanted this to fail. Why? Because every single Democrat running for office, every Democrat Senate candidate, every Democrat House candidate is now out saying, gosh, I wanted to secure the border.
But the meanwhile, Republicans wouldn’t let us. And that was spectacularly stupid. And what’s frustrating, Stuart, Mitch McConnell is saying the exact same thing that Chuck Schumer is. I think that is malpractice for the leader of a party in the Senate.
“Now, the border bill down, down and out, by the looks of it. Are you going to get aid to Ukraine?” Varney followed up.
“You know, it’s not clear. My view is, it is important that Russia lose. It is important that Putin lose,” Cruz replied, adding:
But it is important. And it is more important that we secure our own border and defend our nation. And so my position has been I am more than willing to fund aid to Ukraine. I voted for every military aid fund bill for Ukraine so far, but I will fund aid to Ukraine after we secure our own border. We will secure Ukraine’s border only after America’s border is secured. That seems to me a common sense position and certainly the position of Texans back home.
“There is going to be, I am told there will be a vote on a separate aid to Ukraine. Will you vote against it?” Varney followed up.
“I will. What I, every Republican several months ago said in unity we will not vote to fund additional aid to Ukraine until we solve the border crisis. That was, by the way, Mitch McConnell was one of them. And then what happened is he negotiated a deal that didn’t do it, that didn’t actually secure the border. But what it did do is give political camouflage to Chuck Schumer. And the Democrats got it. I think that was a grave mistake,” Cruz argued.
Watch the clip above via Fox Business.
