Sen. Cruz: Speaker Pelosi Needs to Take the Senate's Anti-Semitism Resolution For a Vote, to Stand United Speaking Against the Evil That Is Anti-Semitism

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary's Subcommittee on the Constitution, appeared on ‘The Ben Shapiro Show' regarding his efforts to enact term limits in Congress and his anti-Semitism legislation in the Senate. During the interview, Sen. Cruz highlighted the hearing he chaired to examine term limits as a method of creating accountability in Congress. He also highlighted the ongoing humanitarian crisis at the border and called on congressional Democrats to act.

Sen. Cruz has been leading efforts in the Senate to implement term limits for Congress and in January of this year introduced a constitutional amendment with Rep. Francis Rooney (R-Fla.) which would impose term limits on members of Congress. He introduced similar legislation in 2017. When Ben Shapiro asked whether term limits were better than simply voting an incumbent out of office, Sen. Cruz discussed the support of the American people for term limits.

"As you know the framers of the Constitution debated term limits, they didn't ultimately include it. I think we have seen Washington get corroded and get corrupted over now more than two centuries. The case for term limits is essentially the case for draining the swamp," Sen. Cruz said. "That [in] Washington there is a bipartisan problem of career politicians in both parties that come to Congress and stay there forever and ever and ever, they get in bed with special interests, they get in bed with lobbyists, they grow government perpetually and they stay in power. It's one of the things that drives out of control spending or out of control deficits and debt and term limits -- I mean, over 80 percent of Americans support term limits and it's interesting, it cuts across party lines. That's true -- the vast majority of Republicans support term limits but also the vast majority of Democrats and Independents -- also the vast majority of African Americans and Hispanics, across racial and ethnic lines. The one group that doesn't support term limits is career politicians in Washington, and so today I chaired a hearing -- I am the chairman of the Constitution Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee and I chaired a hearing on the constitutional amendment that I have introduced to impose term limits to limit members of the Senate to two six-year terms and to limit members of the house to three, two-year terms."

Sen. Cruz also discussed the anti-Semitism resolution he led in the Senate with Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), which unequivocally condemned anti-Semitism as hateful bigotry. The Senate unanimously passed the Cruz-Kaine resolution. On June 17th, Sen. Cruz called on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to hold a vote in the House of Representatives and pass a clean resolution condemning anti-Semitism.

"What's been happening in the House has been disgraceful. And it's been heartbreaking for many of us. You know we've got this trio of freshman House members who over and over again have been making comments that essentially recite anti-Semitic tropes that go back a long, long time. And in response to some of the more egregious comments by these House freshman, Democratic leadership in the House, Nancy Pelosi wanted to move forward with a straightforward resolution condemning anti-Semitism. Unfortunately, the Democratic caucus fractured on that. They couldn't hold Democrats together to condemn anti-Semitism," Sen. Cruz said. "Instead, they watered it down to a general condemnation of all forms of hatred, all forms of bigotry against anything imaginable. Well I thought we needed to be far more clear. So in the Senate I drafted a straightforward, clear, unequivocal condemnation of anti-Semitism. And my hope was that it would be bipartisan. And so one of the things I was very glad to be able to do is I worked with Tim Kaine, Democrat from Virginia, obviously Hillary Clinton's vice presidential nominee. And Tim Kaine and I worked together on drafting this. He agreed to work with me. And we built - we got I think it was 56 cosponsors, including 14 Democrats in the Senate. And then on Thursday, Tim and I took it the floor of the Senate to pass it, and it ended up passing unanimously, 100-0. And so in the Senate, let me commend Senate Democrats. There are a lot issues I disagree with Senate Democrats on, but every single Senate Democrat supported condemning anti-Semitism. That puts the onus squarely on the House and Nancy Pelosi. That Speaker Pelosi should take up the resolution that just passed the Senate 100 to nothing, the bipartisan resolution condemning anti-Semitism. The Speaker needs to take it for a vote, and the House needs to stand united with us speaking against the evil that is anti-Semitism."

When asked about the ongoing border crisis, Sen. Cruz highlighted the over 144,000 individuals apprehended by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol in May, and urged his colleagues in Congress to provide the resources necessary to secure the border and build the wall.

"We are seeing an absolute crisis on the border," Sen. Cruz said. "My home state of Texas, of the 2,000 miles of border the United States has with Mexico, 1,200 of those miles are in Texas. And we are seeing the crisis, you know when I'm down at the border, I spend a lot of time at the border, when I'm down at the border and the Rio Grande Valley, or all along the border, local officials there say they are being overwhelmed, and these are elected Democrats on the border but they are saying the volume of illegal immigration is so overwhelming right now.

"In the month of May, we apprehended over 144,000 people crossing illegally in just one month---144,000. And it is completely overwhelming the infrastructure, the ability to deal with it, and the position of Congressional Democrats is essentially they are telling everyone ‘go jump in a lake.' The president, the administration has asked for a supplemental funding bill of $4.5 billion to provide the resources to deal with this crisis at the border and to date, congressional Democrats have said ‘hell no', they are not willing to do anything. I hope that they change. That is really a heartless position, and my understanding is next week, the Senate is going to vote on this, so we will see where Senate Democrats line up. But right now, they are telling those children who are coming across the border that they are not willing to provide any resources that those kids, those families need--- that we need to secure the border and stop this crisis."

Listen to Sen. Cruz's interview on The Ben Shapiro Show here.

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