WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary and Foreign Relations Committees, today appeared on Fox Business Network’s ‘Mornings with Maria’ to discuss the House Democrats’ Articles of Impeachment, which he called “a political gesture of anger,” and his expectations for the trial in the Senate. Sen. Cruz also highlighted his bipartisan bill to stop construction of Putin’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which was included in the final FY20 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
On House Democrats’ vote today on Articles of Impeachment, Sen. Cruz said:
“These two articles really are an admission of failure from the House Democrats. We have seen their case collapse. […] Where the House Democrats are now, their position is they can impeach without the president having committed any crime or without the president having broken any law whatsoever. Their position is he doesn’t even have to have a speeding ticket. They could impeach for what are essentially policy and political differences with the president. That’s an abuse of our constitutional process. The Constitution sets out the standards for impeachment that is treason, bribery or other high crimes and misdemeanors. And what they’ve alleged here on its face doesn’t meet that. This is a political gesture of anger. Their base hates Donald Trump, and they’re voting to impeach him because they hate him. That really is telling the voters that Washington politicians think they know better than the people who cast their ballots.”
When asked about Sen. Chuck Schumer’s request to call witnesses in the Senate, Sen. Cruz said:
“In terms of the prosecution, the House Democrats, they have had several months of hearings. They’ve called their witnesses and they didn’t follow their own House precedence. In other words, it was a one-sided hearing. The White House got zero chance to cross examine witnesses. Republicans were not able to call any witnesses because Adam Schiff and Jerry Nadler denied them the ability to call witnesses. And so they built their evidentiary record entirely one-sided evidentiary record. So now Chuck Schumer is coming to the Senate and saying here are the witnesses we want to call. Well, if they want to call those witnesses, you know they can call all four of them. They need to postpone the vote today in the House, and issue subpoenas from the House.”
Sen. Cruz continued, noting the president should have the opportunity to present his defense:
“The other side hasn’t had a chance to call a single witness. The White House has not presented its defense. And so I think if the president’s defense team, if the president wants to call witnesses, if the president wants to call Hunter Biden, if the president wants to call the whistleblower, both of whom should have been called in the House, the president should have the opportunity to do that. That means the Senate should allow the president to call the core witnesses necessary for his defense.”
When asked about the Inspector General Horowitz’ report on FISA abuse, Sen. Cruz said:
“The Inspector General report is nothing short of stunning. It is 434 pages, and it details in excruciating detail a massive pattern abusive of power. In particular, it details 17 specific missed statements, material missed statements the DOJ and FBI made to the FISA court. The most stunning of which is an FBI lawyer doctored an email, doctored evidence, and submitted fraudulent evidence to the court. Somebody is going to jail over that.”
On the passage of the FY20 NDAA, including imposing company-crippling sanctions to stop Russia’s Nord Stream 2, Sen. Cruz said:
“This pipeline if it’s completed, what it would do, it would generate billions of dollars for Putin. And Putin would use that to continue Russia’s military aggressiveness. It would make Europe even more dependent on Russian energy, and that makes Europe susceptible to economic blackmail. Because Putin has already demonstrated he’s perfectly willing to cut off the gas in the dead of winter to try to force people to do what he wants. Europe dependent on Russia is not good for Europe and it’s not good for America. And by stopping this pipeline, by getting the sanction’s legislation passed, […] that will hurt Putin, it will take billions away from him, it will help Europe, it helps Ukraine enormously, and it helps American jobs. [It’s] much better for European energy needs to be satisfied by American natural gas, that creates jobs here in America rather than fueling Putin’s military aggression.”
Watch Sen. Cruz’s full interview here.