Sen. Cruz on Fox News: Holding Articles of Impeachment Is ‘a Sign of Weakness’

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, appeared on Fox News' ‘Sunday Morning Futures' to discuss Democrats' collapsing impeachment effort and the stunning IG report, released earlier this month, that uncovered the grotesque abuses of power and partisanship at the FBI and DOJ.

In response to Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to withhold the Articles of Impeachment, Sen. Cruz said:

"This is a sign of weakness. This is a sign she understands just how weak these Articles are. These Articles of Impeachment that they actually voted on were really an admission of failure. For months, they had been promising all of this evidence of criminal activity. For months they had been talking about bribery, they had been talking about quid pro quo. But then they heard all the evidence and they got no evidence of it. These articles don't allege any crime. This is the first time in the history of our country that a president has been impeached without a single article alleging any criminal conduct. They don't allege any crime. They don't even allege any federal law violated. This was, at the end of the day, a political response because Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats hate the president."

Discussing the findings from the IG report, Sen. Cruz - a former Associate Deputy Attorney General at the Department of Justice - said:

"The Inspector General report is a stunning indictment of the politicization of the Obama Department of Justice and the FBI. The Inspector General Report details 17 specific, serious, misinterpretations the DOJ and the FBI made the FISA court. I'll give you the most stunning example the Inspector General uncovered: a senior lawyer at the FBI fabricated evidence and here's what happened. Carter Page, an outside advisor to the Trump Campaign, he also is periodically talking to Russians, including some sketchy Russians and so, the FBI wants to get a wiretap. [...] The FBI sends an e-mail to the CIA and says ‘Hey, is this guy a source for you?' The CIA emails back and they say, ‘Yes, he is a source.' The FBI assistant general counsel takes that e-mail and he alters it. He types in the words. The CIA says he's a source. The FBI lawyer types in, ‘No, he is not a source.' [...] 180 degrees, exactly the opposite. He then sends that email on to the Department of Justice and uses that as the basis for a sworn statement to the FISA court to get a wiretap."

He continued:

"That is, on its face, criminal conduct. [...] That senior leadership at the FBI, that's how badly they wanted to spy on Donald Trump and get Donald Trump. It is a horrifying abuse of power. [...] This was spying on the Republican nominee to be president. They sent in multiple confidential human sources wearing wires."

Commending U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr and U.S. Attorney John Dunham for continuing to investigate the abuses of power and partisanship within law enforcement, Sen. Cruz noted:

"One of the worst legacies of the Obama Administration is the corruption of law enforcement and the intelligence community. The big unanswered question is ‘How high up the chain did this go.' We know that the Deputy Director of the FBI McCabe was read in and authorized this. We know that the Director of the FBI, James Comey, was read in and authorized this. Did the Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, sign off on spying on the Trump campaign in the middle of the election? Did the National Security Advisor at the White House? Did Barack Obama? Did Joe Biden? [...] Not a single Democrat in the House cares about the answer to any of this."

Sen. Cruz also joined the Fox News Rundown podcast to discuss how House Democrats' are using impeachment as a political weapon against President Trump:

"You know, this has never happened in the history of our country, never once has a president been impeached without at least one article alleging a federal crime. This is a purely partisan vote, only Democrats supported this, that's never happened before either. [...] In the Senate, we're actually doing our job, we are voting, passing legislation, we're confirming judges, we're confirming members of the administration. It's the House, the House Democrats, that refuse to do their job. Their only priority is attacking the president. And I think the voters are frustrated that House Democrats seem to think hating Donald Trump is the reason they were elected."

When asked about the substantive policy wins President Trump and Republicans in the Senate have delivered for the American people, Sen. Cruz said:

"I have worked very, very closely with President Trump. And, we've got some enormous policy victories for the American people. The biggest tax cut of a generation, repealing hundreds of job killing regulations. We've helped produce the lowest unemployment in 50 years. We've helped produce the lowest African American employment every recorded. The lowest Hispanic unemployment ever recorded. We're in the middle of the biggest military rebuild since Ronald Reagan. We moved our embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. We pulled out of the disastrous Iranian Nuclear Deal. We, the President had nominated and we've confirmed 160 new federal judges to defend the Constitution. All of that is a big deal. Those are real results. That's what the men and women of Texas elected me to do."

Watch Sen. Cruz's Sunday Morning Futures interview here.
Listen to Sen. Cruz's Fox News Rundown interview here.

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