Sen. Cruz on Biden Judicial Nominee: Ms. Perez ‘Is and Always Has Been a Left-Wing Activist’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today warned his colleagues on the committee about President Biden's nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), David Chipman, as not only a partisan activist with an extreme anti-gun agenda but also a nominee who has a reported history of racist comments while in his previous office. Sen. Cruz also slammed Democrats' overwhelming support for President Biden's nominee for the Second Circuit of the U.S. Federal Court of Appeals, Myrna Perez, for her history as an unabashed left-wing activist. Read excerpts of his remarks in committee below.

WATCH: Sen. Cruz: We Need Principled Constitutionalists on the Bench, Not Liberal Activists

On President Biden's radical judiciary nominee, Myrna Perez, Sen. Cruz said:

"Out of all the circuit nominees that we have seen so far, Myrna Perez is the most dangerous. She has been a radical, and an activist for what effectively amounts for her to her entire career, having spent the last 15 years advocating for extreme far left positions. She has waged campaigns against voter ID laws, describing them as the greatest rollback of voting rights in the country. Even though 80 percent of Americans support voter ID laws, and 60 percent of African Americans support voter ID laws. Even though voter ID laws have been upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court in an opinion authored by Justice John Paul Stevens, one of the great liberals to serve on the Court. She has opposed voter integrity laws almost across the board. And she's not just opposed to them as a matter of law. She said anyone who disagrees with her radical views and believes in ensuring the integrity of our elections must be racist."

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"Now, a shrewd observer may think, where have I heard all of these policy positions before? And the answer of course is S.1, the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act.' If Ms. Perez is confirmed, she will be the judicial equivalent of a judge who will mandate the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act.' Never mind getting it through Congress. You may not have the votes in Congress, but if you put an activist judge on the bench, she can order the policy outcomes you like, never mind the law. Banning voter ID - you bet she would do it in a heartbeat. Requiring states to allow ballot harvesting - check. She's going to be there too. Allowing felons to vote - you bet. Prohibiting voter integrity laws - 100 percent. And that's exactly what Democrats want on the bench. Democrats have a long history of trying to get through activist courts what they can't get through the democratic process. That's what they're trying to do with Ms. Perez. They can't pass the ‘Corrupt Politicians Act,' so they're trying to do the next best thing, which is confirm a radical to the bench who will impose those policies from the bench.

"The amazing thing is, Senate Democrats are not even hiding the fact that Ms. Perez has been nominated precisely because she will be a partisan from the bench. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a moment of raw honesty, went off script when introducing this president hearing and he said that he wants Ms. Perez on the bench because she will, ‘Persuade fellow members of the Second Circuit to the righteousness of the causes that she will follow.' Well, I appreciate Senator Schumer's candor, and if you are nominating someone to be a left-wing activist, this would be one heck of an endorsement. But this is damning for a judicial nominee. Chuck Schumer is telling Democrats: This is going to be a righteous advocate of causes. Throw out all pretense of judicial objectivity, throw out all pretense of following the law. She's going to be a left-wing activist."

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"Neither Sen. Schumer nor Chairman Durbin is wrong about Ms. Perez. She's given us every reason to believe that she will continue her radical activism if she's confirmed. Nominees who care about the judicial role, who care about the appearance of bias, who care about demonstrating a judicial temperament, will take on a judicial role as soon as they even think about the possibility of becoming a judge. What Ms. Perez has demonstrated, even when she was in the process of being nominated to the court, [is] she's a partisan, and a partisan she will stay."

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"This nominee is and always has been a left-wing activist, and if she is confirmed to the Federal Court of Appeals, she'll continue to be a left-wing activist. Unfortunately, that's what our Democratic colleagues want. In a moment, we're going vote on this judge, and I'm going to predict that every single Democrat is going to dutifully salute and say, ‘Aye. Confirm the activist - to heck with judicial independence, to heck with judicial temperament, to heck with following the law. We have a left-wing partisan agenda and we want judges to force them on the people. Never mind democracy, never mind the will of the voters. We want to exercise power.' When it comes to priorities, I think that is a profoundly misplaced priority."

On the President Biden's concerning ATF nominee, David Chipman, Sen. Cruz said:

"The nomination of David Chipman raises very serious concerns, very serious concerns because his record is that of someone with an extreme gun control agenda. Indeed, he argued that Senate Democrats' proposals to ban guns don't go nearly far enough, that he wants to go much further than for example, Sen. Feinstein's bill. He's entitled to those views, but those views are out of step with the mainstream of America.

"Since his hearing, even more disturbing information has come to light, in particular, two different sets of allegations. One, an article from The Reload July 2,8 2021 entitled, ‘ATF agents corroborate existence of racial complaint against Biden director nominee, fear reprisals, and hit two agency effectiveness,' and the article says, ‘Multiple ATF sources backup the existence of a complaint alleging President Biden's nominated to lead the ATF, David Chipman, made racist comments during his previous stint at the agency.' The article goes on to quote one of those ATF agents, ‘He made some comments that he was surprised by the number of African Americans who have made it onto a specific promotional list.' So his insinuation was that they had to have cheated, which is kind of despicable. The article further quotes ATF agents as saying, ‘He left Detroit because of that. He did not leave Detroit on the best of terms his reputation was that he was not nice to people.' These are troubling allegations and yet, the chairman of this committee has said it's not worth the committee's time to have a hearing and to let Mr. Chipman answer these allegations."

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"So what this committee is saying is that allegations of racism if you're a partisan Democrat - ‘No problem at all. Not even worth asking about.' Secondly, another story that has broken. This is from a story in Fox News on August 5, 2021, and titled, ‘Biden ATF nominee Chipman failed to disclose Chinese state TV hit used as propaganda by the communist state.' And it explains that, ‘President Biden's nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, failed to disclose to the Senate a media appearance on Chinese state TV, which may have been used as propaganda by the communist state to cover up a mass stabbing of children.' Now, the chairman defended that as saying, ‘Well, other people have gone on state TV perhaps.' Did Mr. Chipman know that he was going on a communist propaganda show? Did he know that it would be used as propaganda to tear down America? Did he know that it would be used as propaganda to cover up the atrocities in Communist China? We don't know. We don't know because this committee hasn't had the chance to answer them. And what the committee leadership is saying is they don't care. It doesn't matter. Truth doesn't matter. We got a partisan agenda to do. Don't bother us with actually doing our jobs."

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