Sen. Ted Cruz joins “The Tony Kinnett Cast” to discuss President Donald Trump’s first 100 days, whether President Joe Biden’s remaining judicial nominees will get confirmed, and what the American people want lawmaekrs to do. Watch above or read a lightly-edited transcript below.
Tony Kinnett: Welcome back to “The Tony Kinnett Cast” here on The Daily Signal nationally syndicated. We’re online with an athletic champion. The man has not only conquered the basketball court but has also conquered the NFL field down in Texas as well. We’re talking, of course, about Sen. Ted Cruz. Senator, thanks for joining us today.
Sen. Ted Cruz: Tony, great to be with you, and I want to thank you for that. In my 53 years of life, no one on planet Earth has ever called me an athletic champion, so I’ll take that with great joy.
Kinnett: So, let’s talk about great joy for a second here. And I don’t mean the kind that cometh in the morning, I’m more talking about what a lot of Republicans are seeing in the Senate and the House throughout the country, an unexpected level of unity in preparing for [Donald] Trump’s first 100 days in office.
Just to start off, a basic idea, what is it like, the atmosphere right now in the Senate? All the Monday morning quarterbacks are talking about leadership struggles and all these other things. What are you seeing on the ground in D.C.?
Cruz: There is enormous excitement right now. The election results were overwhelming. The American people overwhelmingly reelected President Trump. You look at the seven swing states, he won all seven of the swing states. It was decisive. He won the popular vote. It was a powerful verdict by the American people.
If you look at the Senate, right now it appears Republicans have won 53 seats in the Senate, giving us a decisive majority in the Senate and also giving Republicans a majority in the House.
And I think the reason is straightforward. No. 1, the Biden-Harris policy agenda was a disaster and people wanted to change the path we’re on. But No. 2, the American people voted and gave the president and the Republican Congress a compelling mandate, to deliver on our promises.
No. 1, to secure the border—we will secure the border. No. 2, to get the economy moving, to create jobs and to turn around the inflation that Joe Biden, the Democrats have unleashed on the American people. And No. 3, to enhance our national security. The world is a dangerous place and with the weakness of Joe Biden as a commander in chief, it’s gotten more dangerous. I think the American people are ready to turn that around.
Kinnett: I don’t blame him just a bit. So, let’s talk a little bit about the national security apparatus down by the border. Obviously, your governor, Gov. Greg Abbott, made huge strides against the federal government, specifically against Attorney General Merrick Garland, who decided that Texas was in the wrong for, I know this is going to sound terrible, enforcing existing federal law regarding protection of the southern border. And there was this big struggle for just a little while.
I know Indiana and several other states sent National Guard troops down to assist with your operations down there, Lone Star. But now we’re looking at Trump’s pick with Matt Gaetz heading toward the attorney general slot. First of all, do you think Matt’s going to get confirmed? And then, if he is confirmed, what do you expect regarding the federal government and enforcing federal border law and its relationship to the states?
Cruz: Well, I will say, under Joe Biden, we’ve seen the Department of Justice and the entire federal government weaponized.
Kinnett: Yes, sir.
Cruz: And it has been weaponized to go after Biden’s political opponents. And it has also been weaponized in an utterly lawless manner, and there’s no area of greater lawlessness under this current administration than when it concerns our southern border.
Joe Biden, [Vice President] Kamala Harris, and irrational Democrats presided over an invasion at our southern border; 12 million illegal immigrants coming into this country, the highest in recorded history. And that has jeopardized the safety and security of every family in Texas and every family across the country. And I think this election was an absolute mandate to secure the border.
Now, here’s some good news. The chaos at the southern border was caused by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris through unilateral executive action. The good news is what is done through unilateral executive action can be undone through unilateral executive action. What Trump will do starting on Jan. 20 is simply enforce the law. It is existing federal law that people who come here illegally shall be detained and shall be deported. And that is what we’ll return to starting on Jan. 20.
And I’m here to predict, we’re going to secure the border and it’s not going to take a year, it’s not even going to take six months. We will secure the border and get it done in January and February of next year simply by enforcing the law. And I have every confidence that the Trump administration will do exactly that.
Kinnett: So, moving forward from there, you get into [Sen. John] Thune’s leadership, which, from what I’ve seen so far, has said Trump has an agenda. It is that, as you’ve said quite clearly, a mandate from the American voter, not just traditional Republicans, not just deep-red state conservatives, but by Americans at large. Again, Trump winning the popular vote and as well as doing quite well handily in a lot of Senate elections.
So, when you’re looking at the Senate leadership moving forward and accomplishing this, you see just a team of mavericks. You had JFK with Kamala, now you’ve got Trump putting together the Avengers to march forward here.
The Senate’s going to have a huge role in the first couple of weeks of the Trump administration. You guys have confirmation hearings and we’ll get to that in a second. But I got to ask, right now Biden is trying to slip as many judicial appointments under the noses of the American people as a lame-duck president. Do you think that the GOP Senate has any role in fighting some of those between now and when Trump takes office?
Cruz: Well, look, I’ve been leading the fight against terrible judicial nominees for 12 years, and I have to say Joe Biden has nominated the worst of the most radical judges we’ve ever seen in our country’s history. I’ve joked that Biden did something that I used to think was impossible. He made me miss [President] Barack Obama. And listen, Obama was a radical and he had terrible nominees, but by comparison, Obama’s nominees seemed positively mild compared to the zealots that Joe Biden has been naming forward.
You’re right, [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer and the Democrats are trying to ram as many of them through as possible in the next two months. Look, I think they recognize that the door is closing and it’s closing quickly. There’s going to be a new Senate sworn in the beginning of January, and that Senate with Republican majorities is going to get to work confirming President Trump’s Cabinet and his nominees for the administration and get to work shortly thereafter confirming President Trump’s judicial nominees when he makes those nominations.
And I will say, if you look at the first term of the Trump administration, there are many legacies from his first term, but there may be none as far lasting and consequential as the Trump judicial appointments. When President Trump was president last time, I worked hand in hand with him to find and nominate and confirm principal constitutionalists to the federal bench. And I’m confident we will return to doing so.
And that’s a legacy that will lead to lasting benefits for the American people, in particular, judges who are, A, not zealots trying to destroy jobs and destroy economic opportunity; B, who are not lawless radicals looking to do things like allow the invasion at our southern border; but C, critically, constitutionalist judges who will protect the Bill of Rights, protect your rights to free speech, to religious liberty, to the Second Amendment.
That is an incredibly important responsibility of the courts and it is one of the most important tasks of both the president and the Senate to nominate and confirm judges who will do exactly that.
Kinnett: You’re jumping ahead of me. I had the question all framed up nicely, had it really beautifully worded about your role in confirming judicials in the Trump administration. So, thank you very much.
But this is the thing that, again, given your experience over the last 12 years and working to make sure that the right judicial [appointments] are put up in front of the American people—because these district courts are always the ones that come out of the woodwork. There’s a major law that passes and then somebody from the umpteenth, no-one-cares federal district slams down a law with some spurious nonsense of a rationale. And then it seems as though the American people are cheated because some Dollar General-degree judge was passed through a Democratic administration and is now sitting at a district court.
So, I was going to ask you what you look for in a good judge and, well, you laid all of that out on the line for us. So maybe I should ask, what are some of the big laws that you’re looking for the Senate to move forward that are going to need great judges to uphold in the legal battle afterward? Because some of these things just make those on the far left feel like they’re sitting on thumbtacks and needles.
Cruz: Well, look, the biggest legislative battle we’re going to have that is going to start immediately is focusing on extending the tax cuts that are expiring. And with that, using that bill to, No. 1, provide resources and policy tools to help secure the border, but No. 2, to repeal and rein in job-killing regulations that are hurting job creation.
My No. 1 priority is jobs, jobs, jobs. And I think the American people gave us a mandate. They don’t want the federal government in the business of killing jobs, of destroying small businesses, of driving up prices. And I’ll tell you, a huge part of jobs is energy. And I have every confidence that President Trump, working hand in hand with the Republican Congress, is going to work again to reestablish American energy dominance.
America is the world’s leading superpower on oil and gas. We should not be relying on hostile dictators who hate us to provide energy, but rather we should use energy as power and we should use energy to drive down costs for American consumers. And we’re going to do exactly that.
Kinnett: Last question, Sen. Cruz. There have been several rumors circulating, but I just want to get this cut off right at the source, is it true there was a throw pillow in your house with the words stitched “drill, baby, drill” on it?
Cruz: There’s not, but I wish I had one. I would love to have a pillow like that. It sounds terrific. Although, to be honest, if I tried to put it in our house, I’m pretty sure Heidi would veto it. I do not have pillow-purchasing authority in our house.
Kinnett: All right, thank you very much, Sen. Ted Cruz. Congrats on the reelection and thank you very much for stopping by.
Cruz: I appreciate it. Take care.