Sen. Cruz: This Supreme Court Nominee Has Been Litigated by the American People

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today appeared on Fox News' ‘Ingraham Angle', the ‘Hugh Hewitt Show,' and CBS ‘This Morning' where he discussed the historical precedent for confirming a Supreme Court nominee in an election year. During the interviews, Sen. Cruz urged his colleagues to move swiftly to confirm the president's nominee. Excerpts of the interviews are below.

WATCH: Cruz on Fox: I Believe the Senate Will Have the Votes To Confirm a Justice Before Election Day

Sen. Cruz outlined the historical precedent for confirming President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court before Election Day, saying:

"History is abundantly clear that when the president and the Senate are of the same party, the Senate confirms an election-year vacancy. That's happened 29 times in our nation's history, 19 of them were when the president and Senate were of the same party, [and] 17 of those were confirmed. On the other hand, when the president and Senate are of different parties - that's happened 10 times - the Senate has only confirmed it twice. That explains the difference between 2016 and 2020. The American people elected President Trump and a Republican majority because we want the Constitution and Bill of Rights protected. That is our job [and] it's what we need to do." (Sen. Cruz, Ingraham Angle, 9/21/2020)

"Here's what history shows: whenever the president and the Senate are controlled by the same party, the Senate almost always confirms nominations in a presidential election year. It's happened 19 times. The Senate has confirmed it 17 times. Whenever the president and the Senate are controlled by opposite parties - as it was four years ago with Barack Obama - the Senate doesn't confirm the nominee. That's happened 10 times in our history. The Senate's only confirmed the nominee twice. Now, you may say that's just a question of partisan power. It's actually not. It's a question of the people deciding. This issue was litigated. It was litigated to the American people." (Sen. Cruz, This Morning, 9/22/2020)

Sen. Cruz also urged his Republican colleagues to ensure President Trump's nominee is confirmed before Election Day:

"This is exactly why President Trump was elected. He was elected to nominate principled constitutionalists to the Supreme Court. And this is why the American people elected a Republican majority, and they did so repeatedly. They elected a Republican majority in the Senate in 2014. They did so again in 2016. And in 2018, they grew our majority in the Senate. The voters had front and center the issue of what kind of justices are going to go to the Court. Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, they embrace radical leftists who want to undermine the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and President Trump promised to nominate justices in the mold of Scalia and Thomas." (Sen. Cruz, Ingraham Angle, 9/21/2020)

On Democrats' partisan games and threats to pack the Court and impeach President Trump for filling the vacancy, Sen. Cruz said:

"I think we're going to confirm the nominee no matter what antics Nancy Pelosi pulls. If they try to impeach the president, as you and I know, the Constitution sets out the standards for impeachment. Impeachment lies when the president has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. It is not complicated that nominating a Supreme Court Justice does not constitute high crimes and misdemeanors. Nancy Pelosi knows that. Chuck Schumer knows that. They're simply angry and exercising political rage. And this is the same rage that has burned on the far Left since Election Day 2016. They're mad at the American people. How dare you elect Donald Trump president? They're mad at the American people for electing Senate Republican majorities in 2014, 2016, 2018. And this is one of many ways that their anger is burning. We're also seeing riots in the streets. It's all the same rage that's playing out." (Sen. Cruz, The Hugh Hewitt Show, 9/22/2020)

"The Democrats are going to pack the Court and it has nothing to do with this vacancy. They have let the crazy Left drive their party. Their party is dominated by AOC and Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. They've been very naked that they intend to try to do it. Remember, FDR tried to pack the Court. He tried to take it from nine justices to 15 - and even his own party, the Democrats said, ‘OK, that's too much. We're not going to do this.' The difference is, I don't believe there is a single senator, not one on the Democratic side, who would stop their efforts to pack the Court. That was true before this vacancy. They are radical and they're angry and it raises the stakes for this election." (Sen. Cruz, The Hugh Hewitt Show, 9/22/2020)

He continued, outlining the importance of having a nine Justice Supreme Court:

"I was part of the legal team representing George W. Bush in Bush vs. Gore. I think what we saw in Florida in Bush vs. Gore with litigation challenging the election, if Joe Biden loses, we're going to see all over the country, not just one state, but multiple states. And if the Democrats succeed in keeping this seat vacant, there would be only eight justices on the Supreme Court. If they divide four-four, they cannot make a decision. The Court has no authority divided four-four. We all remember the 36 days of uncertainty, of chaos that played out in Bush vs. Gore. Without filling this seat, this election could last weeks or months. And with the kind of chaos we're seeing that constitutional crisis I think would be incredibly unhealthy for our country." (Sen. Cruz, Ingraham Angle, 9/21/2020)

"If we don't fill this vacancy, if the Supreme Court simply has eight justices, then there's a very real possibility that the Court will deadlock four-four. And as you know, a deadlocked four-four Court cannot decide anything. In Bush vs. Gore we had 36 days of chaos and uncertainty. If the Democrats succeed in delaying this election or if feckless Republicans delay the confirmation vote, the consequence could well be a constitutional crisis, with the election results dragging on for weeks and months with utter chaos. The country's too divided to allow that to happen. I think that would be a gross disservice to the nation." (Sen. Cruz, The Hugh Hewitt Show, 9/22/2020)

Sen. Cruz is leading the fight to confirm a strong constitutionalist to the Supreme Court before Election Day. Here's what news outlets are saying:

Fox News: Ted Cruz on why Senate must confirm SCOTUS nominee before election: ‘It's precedent'
"Sen. Ted Cruz on Sunday made a case for why the Senate must confirm the Supreme Court nominee to fill the seat vacated by late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before election day. ‘If you look at history,' Cruz said during an interview on ABC's ‘This Week.' ‘If you actually look at what the precedent is, this is what happened 29 times. 29 times there has been a vacancy in the presidential election year.' Cruz said that presidents have made nominations ‘all 29 times.'"

Politico: Cruz: Ginsburg was ‘one of the finest Supreme Court litigators to have ever lived'
"Sen. Ted Cruz praised former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sunday morning, calling her a ‘trailblazing advocate [and] one of the finest Supreme Court litigators to have ever lived.' ‘She served for nearly three decades on the court, I argued nine times before Justice Ginsburg on the court,' the Texas Republican said to ‘This Week' host George Stephanopoulos on ABC. ‘She was a brilliant justice, her questions were always incisive. She was a careful lawyer.'"

Daily Wire: ‘There's A Long History Here': Ted Cruz Explains Why He Believes SCOTUS Vacancy Is Different Than In 2016
"Cruz went on to explain that the ‘big difference' is whether the Senate is in the same party as the nominating president. Of the 19 times a president nominated a justice when his party controlled the Senate, 17 of them were confirmed. Of the 10 times when the president and Senate were of different parties, the Senate has confirmed the nominee only twice, which Cruz described as an exercise in the federal government's ‘checks and balances.' Cruz also pointed out that when Stephanopoulos' former boss, President Bill Clinton, nominated Justice Stephen Breyer to the Supreme Court in 1994, he chose someone who had been nominated to the First Circuit Court of Appeals by President Jimmy Carter after Carter had already lost the 1980 election. Even though the Democratic Senate had been tossed out by the electorate, too, Cruz said they ‘took it up in December and confirmed it in the lame-duck.'"

The Federalist: Cruz Decimates Democrats' Demands For No SCOTUS Confirmation In An Election Year
"‘It's not just simply your party, my party. It's a question of checks and balances. In order for a Supreme Court nomination to go forward, you have to have the president and the Senate,' Cruz said. According to Cruz, one of the main reasons Trump was elected is that Americans wanted more conservative justices instated in the court. ‘In this instance, the American people voted. They elected Donald Trump. A big part of the reason they elected Donald Trump is because of the Scalia vacancy, and they wanted a principled constitutionalist on the court,' Cruz explained. ‘And it's a big part of the reason why we have a Republican majority elected in 2014, reelected in 2016, grown even larger in 2018. A major issue in each of those elections is the American people voted and said we want constitutionalist judges.'"

READ: Sen. Cruz for FoxNews.com-After Ginsburg -- 3 reasons why Senate must confirm her successor before Election Day

WATCH: Sen. Cruz on ‘This Week': ‘We Need a Full Court on Election Day'

WATCH: Cruz Mourns Passing of Justice Ginsburg, Calls on Senate to Confirm Successor Before Election 

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