Sen. Cruz: It’s Time Democrats Stop the Political Theater and Stand on the Side of Freedom

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) this week delivered remarks on the Senate floor slamming Democrat leadership in the House of Representatives for threatening to arrest those not wearing masks and the Biden administration's vaccine mandate proposal for all federal employees. Read excerpts of his remarks below.

WATCH: Cruz on the Senate Floor: Pelosi Mask Mandates are Unprecedented, Abusive

"We're surrounded by men and women who've chosen to come and work for the public good. And here's what Speaker Pelosi has decreed: ‘If you dare walk in the hallway without a mask, I, Speaker Pelosi, will arrest you. I will put you in jail, I will find you.' That is an absolute and complete abuse of power. She has no authority to disrespect the men and women who work here, to threaten you with physical harm, to threaten you with imprisonment. And why does she do so? She does so for one reason: political theater.

"We're coming through a very difficult year and a half. Our nation and the world have endured a pandemic. We have collectively taken extraordinary steps to defeat this pandemic, and we are coming out on the other side. We saw our nation, we saw the private sector come together with remarkable inventiveness and produce vaccines in record times. And we have seen hundreds of millions of people getting those vaccines. We are in the process of beating this pandemic. Not too long ago, the CDC recognized what was obvious then, it is obvious now: vaccines work. And if you're vaccinated, you don't need to wear a mask."

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"And it was obvious on the day that the oracle of the CDC [Dr. Anthony Fauci] spoke that vaccines work, which is why every Democrat took their masks off. But fast forward to this week. The CDC issued a new proclamation apparently, according to the CDC, ‘Vaccines don't work anymore. That science thing [is] inoperative. We got more important things to worry about, like politics.' As an aside, Mr. President, has there ever been an institution in American public life that has discredited itself more rapidly than the CDC?

"A year and a half ago, the CDC was one of the most respected medical and scientific organizations on the face of the planet. Today, the CDC has willingly allowed itself to be politicized to behave as an arm of the DNC. And their credibility is in tatters. It is a joke. We have seen the emails from Dr. Fauci where he said in the midst of the pandemic, ‘Masks don't work, they're not effective. People shouldn't use them.' Then we saw him say, ‘Oh, no, no, no masks work. But I lied to the American people when I said they didn't work, because I didn't want them to wear masks because I wanted first responders to get them.' Now pause for a second and think. What the heck is a scientific leader doing lying to the American people supposedly for our own good? The willingness to twist facts to meet political expediency has been stunning. The CDC's ruling this week [was] not accompanied by any data. They did not roll out studies, they did not roll out facts."

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"This makes no sense. One of the things the CDC rolled out this week is an edict that in schools, everybody must be masked. Child, adult-doesn't matter. If you're vaccinated, doesn't matter. You must wear a mask. Why? Who knows? Not based on science, not based on medicine. This virus has been unusual. We've seen in certain populations, COVID-19 can be profoundly deadly. If you're very elderly, if you have serious comorbidities, this virus can and has been deadly. But we've also seen among children, that the odds of children getting seriously ill from COVID-19 are extremely low. We've seen that children have not proven to be a meaningful vector in the spread of this disease. The science doesn't support special rules for schools. But you know what does? The politics. Because the teachers' union bosses came to the CDC and said, ‘We want this rule in place.' And the partisan forces at the CDC said, ‘Ma'am, yes, ma'am. We will issue the order demanded by the union bosses.'"

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"Let me point out my view: I think we should not have government mandates concerning COVID-19. There should be no vaccine mandates. Joe Biden wants to mandate federal employees must get the vaccine, who the heck is the federal government to tell people they must stick a needle in their arm and inject themselves with a vaccine? We should have no vaccine mandates. We should have no mask mandates. We should have no vaccine passports. And let me be clear, I'm someone who believes in vaccines. I've been vaccinated. Heidi has been vaccinated. My parents have been vaccinated. Heidi's parents have been vaccinated.

"But I also believe in individual choice. I believe in freedom, I believe in responsibility. It's your choice if you want to get vaccinated. It's not some drunk-on-power Democrat in Washington's choice to force you to do it. Doesn't anyone in the Democratic Party believe in medical autonomy? Doesn't anyone in the Democratic Party believe in medical privacy? Are you so willing to exert power that it doesn't matter what the people say?"

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"So here's the science. If you've been vaccinated, the odds of you getting COVID-19 are exceptionally low, depending on which vaccine you got. The percentages vary. But let's say on the order of three to five percent. And even if you do get COVID-19, the odds of you getting a serious case of COVID-19, a case of COVID-19 resulting in hospitalization or death, are extremely low. This vaccine has been very, very successful. Do you understand that basic fact? Then the next fact follows from it. If someone is unvaccinated and has COVID, they are little to no threat to someone who is vaccinated. If you've gotten your vaccine, you ought to be fine. The odds are very low that you're at jeopardy."

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"I'll tell you, the American people are watching this political theater play out in Washington, and they understand what's coming next. They understand the same CDC that said, even though there's no science to back it up, even though there's no data to back it up, because the teachers union bosses want masks for everyone in schools will decree it. They understand the risk of what's coming next is that authoritarian statist Democrats will order more shutdowns, will order businesses shut down, will order school shut down, will order churches shut down. We look at the past year and a half few things are clear than the shutdowns were a catastrophic mistake. The politicians that ordered the shutdowns committed a catastrophic mistake."

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"Regardless of the facts, what Speaker Pelosi is doing is wrong. What the CDC is doing, corrupting science with politics, is wrong. And it's time for the United States Senate, the United States House, to stand on the side of the American people, to stand on the side of freedom. To say it's your choice to go to work, to go to school, to go to church-to live your life."

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