Sen. Ted Cruz criticized Republican leaders today for “cutting a deal” with Democrats and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid to help fund President Obama’s executive actions on immigration.
The senator’s comments came at the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference outside of Washington, D.C., where Cruz, R-Texas, delivered a speech and took questions from Fox News host Sean Hannity.
The tea party darling vocally opposes the president’s immigration actions and has said that Congress should work to defund them.
Today, he warned attendees that members of GOP leadership were making a deal with Democrats to fund the president’s immigration actions, regardless of the American people’s wishes.
“They’re not listening to you,” Cruz, a presumed Republican candidate in the 2016 presidential election, told the audience. “I talked about the divide between Washington and the people. In Washington, K Street and Wall Street love amnesty. They support the substantive policy.”
“I talked about the divide between Washington and the people. In Washington, K Street and Wall Street love amnesty. They support the substantive policy,” said @SenTedCruz.
Last month, the House passed a bill defunding Obama’s immigration policies. However, it stalled in the Senate after Democrats successfully filibustered the legislation four times, preventing it from advancing in the upper chamber.
With the deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security looming, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell opted to introduce two separate bills: one that funds the Department of Homeland Security and a second that rolls back the president’s immigration executive actions.
However, House conservatives expressed dismay toward McConnell’s plan and called it “smoke and mirrors” designed to convince the American people they were acting against it.
Cruz agreed.
“There is a mendacity about Washington,” he said. “They want to take a show vote, but they don’t want to follow through on what they say.”
Yesterday, the Senate voted 98-2 to advance a “clean” DHS funding bill. Lawmakers in the upper chamber are expected to pass the legislation today, and then it will go before the House.