Sen. Ted Cruz dismissed efforts by President Trump and his allies to make alleged corruption by Joe Biden and his family an “October Surprise.”
Following the final presidential debate between Trump and the Democratic nominee on Thursday, the Texas Republican told Axios reporter Jonathan Swan that he didn’t think stories involving the son of Biden, Hunter, and his foreign business dealings “moves a single voter.”
“One of Biden’s best points was when he said, ‘All of these attacks back and forth about my family and his family, they don’t matter. What matters is your family,'” Cruz added.
Earlier this month, the New York Post began reporting on the contents of a laptop and hard drive that purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden, which contained emails and other data detailing his foreign business dealings. Some of the content on the hard drive, which has been obtained by the FBI, has provided ammo to Biden’s critics to raise concerns about possible corruption and national security issues.
Biden claimed attacks related to the laptop are part of a “smear campaign” while Democrats and former intelligence officials have said the story has hallmarks of Russian disinformation, something that Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has said there is no evidence to back up.
Still, neither Biden nor his son Hunter have denied the authenticity of the computer materials which have been hawked to some media outlets by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and they are boosted by other messages and claims that have surfaced elsewhere, including those raised by Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of the younger Biden.
Cruz also noted in the interview that candidates should be “lifting people up.”
“I think we should be unifying, we should be explaining, we should be lifting people up,” he said. “I think it’s a turnout election. But my assessment of turnout is the Left is showing up no matter what. That those who hate Trump will crawl over broken glass to vote against him.”
The president has repeatedly brought up the issue of alleged corruption by Biden, including during the debate. He has also urged Attorney General William Barr to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate.
“We’ve got to get the attorney general to act. He’s got to act. And he’s got to act fast. He’s got to appoint somebody. This is major corruption, and this has to be known about before the election,” Trump said last week on Fox & Friends.
