Democrats are far more serious about their push for socialist policies like Medicare For All than they are about impeachment, Texas Senator Ted Cruz says, and his fellow senators are acting accordingly.
“What’s happening in the House is, unfortunately, a partisan circus,” Cruz told InsideSources. “Congressional Democrats decided in November of 2016 they wanted to impeach Donald Trump.” As a result, Cruz says, “House Democrats are having hearings, but in my experience, none of the senators are even watching. They view it as a show trial. It’s not designed to get the facts or evidence. It reminds me of the Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland: ‘Verdict first, trial later.'”
Cruz, who was in Concord, NH speaking at an event for the free-market Josiah Bartlett Center, was quick to add that if the House does vote out articles of impeachment, which he believes is all but certain, the senators will do their duty.
“If it comes to the Senate we’ll have a fair proceeding,” Cruz said. “But at the end of the day, there are not going to be the votes there to remove the president. And to those Democrats who are attacking him day in and day out, there is a remedy when you disagree with an elected official: Beat him at the ballot box. There’s no need to subvert the Constitution to try to frustrate the decision of the voters.”
Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) at the Josiah Bartlett Center event in Concord, N.H. on November 14, 2019.
On the other hand, Cruz says 2020 Democratic candidates like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are very serious about implementing their multi-trillion-dollar policy ideas, and voters who dismiss it as mere campaign rhetoric do so at their peril.
“I can’t speak to every Democratic candidate, but Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are true believers,” the Texas Republican said. “They are true on zealots.”
In 2016, Cruz was a candidate in the GOP presidential primary, facing off against Donald Trump in states like New Hampshire. (Cruz finished third in the Granite State, behind Trump and Ohio Gov. John Kasich). An outspoken Trump critic during the campaign, Cruz has become an ally of the president. Trump returned the favor by campaigning for the Texas Republican in his hard-fought contest with Rep. Beto O’Rourke in 2018.
“Today’s Democratic Party is defined more than anything by its rage and hatred for Trump,” Cruz said. “And unfortunately, that rage has driven the Democratic Party dramatically to the left. Just four years ago, Bernie was the only one who admitted he was a Socialist. You look at the Democratic Party now, and they’re all running on socialism.
“They’re campaigning on taking away the health insurance [of] 160 million Americans have [it] right now, and making it illegal for you to get your insurance through your job. They’re campaigning on free, taxpayer-funded healthcare for every illegal immigrant in America. They’re campaigning on open borders.
“What used to be extreme has become the Democrats’ new baseline,” Cruz said.
In his remarks, Cruz told the audience one reason Democrats can run on proposals that economists and healthcare experts reject as wildly flawed is because “nobody knows what a ‘trillion’ is. Trillion, billion, million — anything with an ‘illion’ sounds big.” Cruz said he explains it to voters this way: “The Green New Deal’s $92 trillion is more than all the federal government spending in the entire history of the country.”
“The great debate of our age is the debate between free enterprise and socialism. And this election poses that choice.”
And does he think it will hurt Democratic chances of winning that debate if there’s an ongoing impeachment trial in Washington at the same time voters are casting ballots in Iowa and New Hampshire next year?
“I do,” Cruz said. “The fact that we are in the middle of the presidential cycle right now illustrates what’s wrong with what congressional Democrats are trying to do.”
