Sen. Cruz on ‘Varney & Co.’: Biden’s Vaccine Mandates are ‘a Grotesque Abuse of Power’

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today joined Fox Business’ ‘Varney & Co.’ to discuss yesterday’s vote in the Senate for a joint resolution, which Sen. Cruz cosponsored, that would use the Congressional Review Act to rescind President Biden’s unlawful COVID vaccine mandate on businesses. He also discussed President Biden’s surrender to Putin on the Nord Steam 2 pipeline—which could enable Putin to invade and devastate Ukraine. Read highlights of Sen. Cruz’s interview below.

WATCH: Sen. Cruz on Varney: Consequences of Biden’s Disastrous Foreign Policy Will Last Years

On the Senate vote to rescind President Biden’s unlawful COVID vaccine mandate on businesses, Sen. Cruz said:

“The vaccine mandate is illegal, it’s unconstitutional, and it’s a grotesque abuse of power. I think Biden knows that. I think the White House lawyers told Biden that this is illegal, this will get struck out in the courts. And cynically, I think they made the decision to ram it through anyway, assuming that litigation will take time, will take months or years. In the meantime, a whole lot of people will obey. Last night’s vote was a really important vote. We voted on rescinding Biden’s vaccine mandate for private employers. It passed with a bipartisan majority, every Republican and two Democrats joined us, and this is one of the very few cracks in the blue wall is that you had Joe Manchin and John Tester both vote with us. It’ll now go to the House. That pressure is going to be on Nancy Pelosi. Nancy doesn’t want to vote on this. She’s going to try to fight to say we’re not voting on this, and the Republicans in the House are going to press to vote. And the question is: Is there going to be even a handful of Democrats in the House that have the courage to stand up to Nancy Pelosi? I don’t know the answer to that. Nancy is going to try to kill it. But if they vote on it in the House, and you see a handful of Democrats with even a little bit of courage, it’ll pass. Then it’ll go to Joe Biden, and we’ll see if he vetoes it. Now, given how extreme he is, he’ll probably veto it. But this is a bipartisan repudiation of the illegal and abusive vaccine.”

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“As I traveled Texas, as I travel the country, literally every day, I’m stopped, I’m stopped by soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines. I’m stopped by airline pilots and flight attendants. I’m stopped by cops and firefighters and doctors and nurses, and people who are frightened about being fired from their job because of this illegal vaccine mandate. In my view, I’m pro-vaccine. I’ve been vaccinated, my family’s been vaccinated. I encourage people to get vaccinated. But I believe in individual choice, I believe Americans [should] make the decision about your healthcare with your doctor. And I think there are millions across the country that feel exactly the same way that this is wrong, that Joe Biden presumes to tell you the health care decisions you’ve got to make for your own personal health.”

On the Biden administration’s foreign policy disasters that have emboldened our enemies, Sen. Cruz said:

“This past year, we’ve seen disaster after disaster from the Biden administration. But as bad as their economic policy has been, as bad as their domestic policy has been, nothing has been a greater disaster than their foreign policy. Several months ago, the Americans and people across the world were horrified as we watched the disaster of Afghanistan, the catastrophe of Biden’s surrender to the Taliban, abandoning Americans behind enemy lines and fleeing in disgrace. That decision has consequences, consequences that are going to last years into the future, because what happened, every enemy of America looked to Washington and they took a measure of the man in the Oval Office. They determined that Joe Biden is too weak to deter them. What we’re seeing is the bad guys are getting worse. We’re seeing Russia and China and Iran and North Korea, every one of them is getting worse as we sit here right now. Over 100,000 Russian troops are amassed on the border of Ukraine, preparing to invade. And they’re invading because they do not believe Joe Biden will do anything. In fact, with Russia and Ukraine, it’s even worse – the direct cause of this Russian invasion that is expected in January or February of next year is that Joe Biden surrendered to Putin and gave him the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which enables Russia to bypass Ukraine for delivering natural gas to Europe, which is why now Putin feels he can invade Ukraine. I don’t know what Biden’s going to say to Ukraine, other than, ‘Sorry for selling you down the river,’ because sadly, that’s what he’s done.”

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