ICYMI: Sen. Cruz on Fox News’ Hannity
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) appeared on Fox News’ Hannity to discuss some of his early priorities for the 115th Congress: Passing a constitutional amendment for congressional term limits, defunding the United Nations until it stops its discriminatory attacks on Israel, and reaffirming the United States’ unshakable alliance with Israel.
“What we saw on election day was an incredible mandate for change,” Cruz said. “We’ve been given a historic opportunity. It is critical that we actually deliver, that we do what we promised.”
Watch Sen. Cruz’s appearance in its entirety here, rush transcript below.
HANNITY: Welcome back to Hannity, one of his campaign promises was for Trump to drain the swamp in Washington earlier this week, presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz said, "D.C. Is broken. The American people resoundingly agree on election day and president-elect trump has committed to putting government back to work for the American people. It's well past time to put an end to the cronyism and deceit that has transformed Washington into a graveyard of good intentions." What a powerful statement. Joining us now to explain, Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Always good to see you. Welcome back, sir.
CRUZ: Thank you Sean, great to be with you. Happy New Year.
HANNITY: Happy New Year to you too. I’ve always said about term limits, it’s a good idea, it's a bad idea whose time has come. It really would I think put politicians on track to do not what is in their best interest but to serve the people. Which is not been happening. In recent years and I think you would agree, Republican, Democrat, it's gotten pretty bad.
CRUZ: That's exactly right. The American people overwhelmingly support term limits. That's in a bipartisan basis. And the reason is simple. They recognize Washington is broken, it's far too easy for people to come to Washington and become career politicians and become corrupted by the system, where the special interests, the lobbyists, they begin supporting them and they stay there forever. When the framers designed the constitution, they envisioned citizen legislators. Who would leave their job for a period of time, leave their businesses or their farms – come to Washington, serve the nation and then go back. We don't have that arrangement today. And so it's my hope that one of the first things we will see is take up a Constitutional amendment providing term limits, to two terms for senators, three terms for members of the house. President-elect trump campaigned on that. It's one of the most effective ways to end the corruption in Washington and drain the swamp.
HANNITY: You are one of just the few people that was willing to use your constitutional authority, the power of the purse, as it relates to Obamacare. It's now an item one agenda for the trump administration. And you actually said yesterday that I’m really impressed with trump. Politics is a blood sport, it was very contentious at certain points, but you did keep your promise. You came around and you supported him and probably you more than any candidate had the most contentious exchanges with him. Others didn't. That's an important aspect to remember. Do you feel that he can get these things done where the republicans were not willing to fight in the past?
CRUZ: I certainly hope so. It was a vigorous primary but he won the primary. He won the general election. I was happy to campaign and we went on the road with them, did everything we could to turn out conservatives. And we saw on election day, it was an incredible mandate for change. It was the American people saying enough is enough. They are fed up and Sean, I’ve got to tell you, I am really optimistic right now. I’m excited. We've been given an historic opportunity. We've been given control of the White House, of every executive branch, both houses of Congress. And what I think is critical now is we deliver. We do what we promise. And I’ve been very, very encouraged by the cabinet appointments that Trump has put forward. These are great conservatives, an all-star team. I just met with General Mattis, I spent about an hour with him. You want to talk about a serious, clear eyed leader -- willing to stand up to radical Islamic terrorism, not bound by the political correctness, the willful blindness of the last eight years. Talk about something we desperately need. I couldn’t be more encouraged.
HANNITY: Even I know you guys are very adversarial during the primary, I believe that you could be a very powerful team. Especially on Obamacare, defeating radical Islam, security, replacing Obamacare, the Supreme Court which I thought was the number one issue in this campaign. I think this could be a powerful alliance but maybe no one predicted it at the time. One thing else that I am really thankful that you came out and said, Congress was cut, the U.N. The disgraceful anti-Israeli resolution that the Obama administration could have vetoed. And they didn't. And the even colluded on.
CRUZ: That's exactly right. If you look at the last several weeks, what the Obama administration has done, it's been shameful. Their true colors are coming out. On the way out, they struck out at Israel in a way that is hateful and profoundly damaging. The U.N. resolution that passed with Barack Obama and john Kerry’s active acquiescence is not their encouragement, is profoundly anti-Israel. It is absurd. It actually declares much of Israel to be illegal and illegitimate. It declares the temple mount, the holiest place in Jerusalem for to be not legitimate or part of Israel. It declares the western wall, where all over the world go to pray, to not be legally and not part of Israel. For decades, the United States has stood as an ally against anti-Semitism and I think Barack Obama did this to secure his legacy. I think history is going to record Barack Obama and John Kerry as relentless enemies of Israel.
HANNITY: We talk about influencing elections. This president spent taxpayer money from the state department to accept his political operatives to help defeat Prime Minister Netanyahu.
CRUZ: That's the antithesis of this resolution. With Netanyahu, I spoke with him a little over a week ago and I shared with him despite this disgraceful action in the U.N. the American people stand unshakably with the people of Israel. And I am joining with my colleague Lindsay Graham, we disagree with a lot of things but we are on the same page for this.
HANNITY: He's not exactly my favorite senator by the way. You are in the better category. Good to see you.
CRUZ: We are going to cut off funding to the U.N. unless they reverse its resolution.
HANNITY: Do you know if the President-elect supports that? I would love to see him support that.
CRUZ: I will tell you we are working very closely with the President-elect and his transition team. Every day we are working closely with them.
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