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Ted Cruz

Cruz on Olympic Boycott: Hurting U.S. Athletes Is 'Weakness' – 'We Should Go Over There, Call Them Out'

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On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Ingraham Angle,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) stated that he opposes boycotting the 2022 Olympics because “hurting American athletes is a policy of weakness.” And that the U.S. “should go over there, call them out, be absolutely explicit.”

Cruz said, “To be honest, I haven’t thought about that question. I’m generally not a fan of boycotting things like boycotting the Olympics.”

He added that China is “committing genocide.” But “we shouldn’t punish American athletes. I think we should go over there, call them out, be absolutely explicit. I’ve introduced legislation to sanction the officials responsible for the genocide, to fight them, and call them out directly. But you know, when Jimmy Carter boycotted the Olympics, I didn’t think it was a very good policy. I think hurting American athletes is a policy of weakness. But the answer we shouldn’t do is to do what a lot of — all the Democrats and a lot of Republicans will want to do, which is go over there and kiss Xi’s behind. We need to speak the truth and call them out unequivocally.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

CPAC Speakers: GOP 'Civil War' Won by Trump

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The speakers at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) believe former President Donald Trump is the leader of the conservative movement.

The media, though, has written about the Republican Party and the “deep divisions over the extent to which it should embrace Trump after losing the White House and both chambers of Congress.” A headline in the Los Angeles Times reads, “The GOP’s civil war is just beginning, and the fighting will get worse before it gets better.”

But the attendees at CPAC disagree. Nearly every noteworthy speaker has supported Trump’s presidency or outright praised his “American First” agenda.

“Donald J. Trump ain’t going anywhere,” said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX).

Sen. Josh Hawley drew among the loudest applause and a standing ovation when he spoke about challenging the election certification on January sixth. “I thought it was an important stand to take,” he said.

“We cannot — we will not — go back to the days of the failed Republican establishment of yesteryear,” said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who outlined a new Trumpian GOP agenda focused on immigration policies, opposition to China, and ending endless wars.

“We will not win the future by trying to go back to where the Republican Party used to be,” echoed Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who chairs the fundraising committee tasked with electing Republicans to the Senate. “If we do, we will lose the working base that President Trump so animated. We’re going to lose elections across the country, and ultimately we’re going to lose our nation.”

Former Secretary Mike Pompeo said, “I’m proud of our fight. And I’m proud of our accomplishments. We have truly upended the status quo,” Pompeo declared to a standing ovation.

Trump Jr., who labeled the conference “TPAC” in honor of his father, hyped the return of his father and the “Make America Great Again” platform to the spotlight.

“I imagine it will not be what we call a ‘low-energy’ speech,” he said. “And I assure you that it will solidify Donald Trump and all of your feelings about the MAGA movement as the future of the Republican Party.”

And as the program was wrapping up for the day on Friday, Trump issued a statement endorsing Max Miller, a former staffer who has now launched a campaign challenging Rep. Anthony Gonzalez (R-OH), another Republican who voted in favor of impeachment.

In a statement, Trump vowed to recruit insurgent candidates “who espouse Making America Great Again and our policy of America first.

Trump seems focused on the movement he began, lording the America First agenda into battle against the “business as usual” crowd in Washington, DC. With $31 million on hand, bankrolled by his leadership PAC, Save America, Trump’s coffers will strategically be invested.

The New York Review Bobbles Its Cruz–Trump History

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Donald Trump and Ted Cruz at the Republican debate in North Charleston, S.C., January 2016 (Randall Hill/Reuters)

I come to correct The New York Review of Books, not to dunk on Ted Cruz, but he’s in the story and hard to avoid. After the glut of commentary on his most recent political error, his Cancún escapade, you may have Cruz fatigue. Your forbearance, please.

Here’s the error committed by the NYR. In the first paragraph of “The Party of Lincoln Ignores His Warning against Mobocracy,” Sarah Churchwell writes:

“Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, signed the Emancipation Proclamation,” Senator Ted Cruz declaimed at the Republican National Convention in 2016, as a prelude to endorsing for president a man whom he had once called a “sniveling coward” and “pathological liar,” a man who had insulted Cruz’s wife and accused his father of conspiring to assassinate President John F. Kennedy.

No. Cruz at the convention withheld his endorsement of the party’s nominee for president. “Vote your conscience,” the runner-up of the primary season said toward the end of his speech, eliciting boos from the floor. His staff had circulated the text beforehand. Delegates had known what was coming, a pointed omission of Trump’s name in the money sentence, coupled with an insinuation that in their hearts they knew he was wrong.

Adding mystery to Churchwell’s mischaracterization of the speech is the link that she or her editors added on the word “declaimed.” Click on it for ABC’s transcript of Cruz’s speech. A video of him at the podium is embedded near the top of the page. “Ted Cruz falls short of endorsing Donald Trump for president,” the caption reads. You can’t miss it.

Cruz relented and endorsed Trump in September of that year. He has worked overtime to redeem himself in the eyes of the Trump base since then. So you may have forgotten — Churchwell and her editors did — that for a few months he had established himself as the leading voice of the anti-Trump faction of the Republican Party.

It’s history worth remembering, though, for the sake of understanding the party’s current moment in a wider context, I say in the spirit not of gotcha but of constructive correction. Journalism is the first draft of history. And while the sentence in question does wander off in a wrong direction, it has the virtue of beginning with “Abraham Lincoln” and ending with “John F. Kennedy.” Call it legend if you like, the notion that certain points of resemblance between their biographies are significant. But the legend has a life of its own. American history is big. It’s okay to let your right brain roam it.

Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse 'Biggest Hypocrite in Politics' on Dark Money

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Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has served as one of the most vocal Democrat critics of “dark money’s” influence in politics, but the Rhode Island Democrat appears to be a significant beneficiary of dark money.

Whitehouse has frequently criticized the alleged nefarious effects of dark money on politics, particularly as it relates to conservative and Republican dark money.

Dark Money refers to political spending in which the source of the money is not disclosed. Political groups typically use dark money through political action groups such as 501(c)(4)s, and the federal government does not require those groups to disclose their donors.

“Opaque” nonprofits and shell companies may also give unlimited donations to super PACs.

The transparency organization OpenSecrets noted that while the Federal Election Commission (FEC) usually requires super PACs to disclose their donors, “some of these groups are effectively dark money outlets when the bulk of their funding cannot be traced back to the original donor.”

Whitehouse most recently criticized conservative groups, allegedly funded by dark money, for launching attacking ads against President Joe Biden’s nominees.

Whitehouse asked rhetorically, “Dark money groups running ads complaining about dark money. Hilarious. What are the chances they will support S.1 and DISCLOSE Act to get rid of dark money? Nil.”

Whitehouse also told former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) in January 2020 how then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) kept the Senate Republican Conference in line using dark money:

Whitehouse also attacked the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in November 2019, claiming that the organization was using its dark money to attack efforts to combat alleged climate change.

Whitehouse and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) also introduced legislation in July 2020 that would require dark money conservative judicial groups to disclose their donors.

“A decades-long effort by big corporations and partisan donors to rig the courts using dark money is working; they’ve won over 80 partisan, 5-4 decisions,” Whitehouse said.

Despite his partisan grandstanding over dark money’s allegedly nefarious effects, Whitehouse has received significant contributions from dark money organizations.

Since 2005, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV), a dark money environmentalist group, has served as Whitehouse’s largest donor. LCV has contributed $187,861 and an additional $12,062 from PACs associated with LCV to Whitehouse.

Despite decrying dark money and moneyed interests influencing campaigns, he raised $5 million more than his Republican counterpart during his 2018 reelection campaign. The Center for Responsive Politics found that Whitehouse’s top contributors come from law firms, retirees, and the finance sector.

Whitehouse also hoped in February 2019 that “liberal dark money” groups such as LCV and Demand Justice would donate to his campaign:

Whitehouse has had a long history with the American Constitution Society, which includes providing keynote speeches and publishing on their website. The American Constitution Society is funded by dark money.

Whitehouse spent his allotted 30 minutes during the confirmation hearing of Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court to attack conservative judicial groups, alleging that they are funded by dark money. However, the Wall Street Journal noted that Whitehouse is a significant beneficiary of dark money. The Journal explained:

[O]n Tuesday Mr. Whitehouse refused to abide by the normal practice for congressional witnesses of answering questions.

Mr. Whitehouse knew that, if he answered questions, he was under legal obligation to tell the truth. House Republicans might have asked him about the dark-money outfit Arabella Advisors. This for-profit entity oversees nonprofits including the Sixteen Thirty Fund and the New Venture Fund, which together reported nearly a billion dollars in revenue in 2017 and 2018.

Arabella affiliate Demand Justice ran a smear campaign against Brett Kavanaugh and is now calling for Democrats to pack the Supreme Court. Demand Justice bills itself as a “project” of the Sixteen Thirty Fund and the New Venture Fund, and in public disclosures it lists the same office address as the two nonprofits.

Mr. Whitehouse’s silence about his own ties to dark-money networks shows his goal isn’t to clean up politics. He wants to silence those who disagree with him. If Mr. Whitehouse holds power in the Senate majority next year, do not expect what Joe Biden says will be a new era of comity and fair play.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) also noted during that hearing that Fortune 500 companies and Wall Street firms largely favor donating to Democrats over Republicans. He said:

Our Democratic colleagues when they address the issue of free speech, of so-called ‘dark money,’ and campaign finance contributions, are often deeply, deeply hypocritical. And, they don’t address the actual facts that exist. Here are some facts, of the top 20 organizations spending money for political speech in the year 2016, 14 of them gave virtually of their money to Democrats. And another three split their money evenly, so only three of the top 20 gave money to Republicans, what did that mean in practice? That meant that the top 20 super PACs donors contributed $422 million to Democrats and $189 million to Republicans.

“The senator from Rhode Island spoke about big corporate powers, without acknowledging that the contributions from the Fortune 500 in the presidential election overwhelmingly favors Joe Biden and the Democrats,” Cruz said during the confirmation hearing.

Comfortably Smug, a conservative Twitter pundit, asked Whitehouse, “So are you going to demand that the Dem dark money groups release the names of their donors???? @SenWhitehouse is the biggest hypocrite in politics, and that’s saying something.”

Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.

Ted Cruz: 'Criminals, Murderers, Rapists' Entering on Biden's 'Most Radical Immigration Plan Proposed in History'

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Sen. Ted Cruz issued a stunning rebuke on Thursday of President Joe Biden’s “most radical immigration plan any administration has ever proposed in history.”

“They have proposed allowing every single person who was deported from this country for the last four years to come back. And by the way,” Cruz explained, “they don’t make exceptions for criminals, for murderers, for rapists. I mean, it is utterly bizarre to have a federal administration refusing to enforce the law against violent criminals.”

Cruz noted, “And frankly, it makes, it makes our country more dangerous…”

“We are a nation of immigrants and there are wonderful people who come here and come here legally. There’s a right way to come,” the Texas senator said. “But today’s Democratic Party has been radicalized where they’re you know, they’re not even willing to enforce the law against violent criminals who are committing horrific crimes.”

Cruz’s comments come amid a federal judge blocking Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) from implementing a halt on deportations, a blow to the administration’s efforts to dismantle interior immigration enforcement.

Hours after taking office on January 20, Biden’s administration issued a memo that sought to halt most deportations of illegal aliens for at least 100 days. As a result, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit requesting a preliminary injunction on the “unlawful” deportation halt.

On Wednesday, United States District Judge Drew B. Tipton granted the preliminary injunction, which prevents the Biden administration from implementing the deportation halt until the U.S. Southern District of Texas District Court, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, or the U.S. Supreme Court resolves the case.

Dale Wilcox with the Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) said Tipton’s blockage of the deportation halt “should hold up on appeal” and called Biden’s memo a “bizarre and sinister attempt to shutter our entire immigration law enforcement system.”