Vice President Joe Biden has a least favorite U.S. Senator, and his name is Ted Cruz.
“I’m being straight about this. This is not your father’s Republican Party. It really is a fundamentally different party,” Biden said, according to a White House pool report. “There’s never been as much distance, at least since I’ve been alive, distance between where the mainstream of the Republican congressional party is and the Democratic Party is. It’s a chasm. It’s a gigantic chasm.”
Even though the freshman Senator has only been serving in the upper chamber since January, he’s made quite the negative impression on the VP. At a fundraiser for Democratic Rep. Ed Markey — who is running in the special election in Massachusetts to replace former Democratic Sen. John Kerry — Biden went after Cruz (R-Texas) by name, blaming him for what he sees as the radicalization of the Republican Party and for the failure of the Senate’s background check bill.
“I’m not talking about the character or even the quality of the minds of the people I’m going to mention. But the last thing in the world we need now is someone who will go down to the United States Senate and support Ted Cruz, support the new senator from Kentucky — or the old senator from Kentucky,” Biden continued, referencing Republican Sen. Rand Paul and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“Think about this,” he said. “Have you ever seen a time when two freshman senators are able to cower the bulk of the Republican Party in the Senate? That is not hyperbole.”
Biden went on to talk about gun control, which became his principal focus after President Barack Obama named him head of the administration’s task force to study the issue, claiming that if it weren’t for Cruz and Paul, the background check bill would have passed in April.
“On the gun issue, I don’t care what your position is — I called 17 senators out, nine of whom were Republicans. Not one offered an explanation on the merits of why they couldn’t vote for the background check, ” Biden claimed. “But almost to a person, they said, ‘I don’t want to take on Ted Cruz. I don’t want to take on Rand Paul. They’ll be in my district.’
“I actually said, ‘Are you kidding? These are two freshman,’” Biden continued, according to the report.“This is a different, party folks. They’re not bad guys, and they’re both very bright guys. And I’m not questioning their motive.”
Though the Senate’s bipartisan gun control legislation did not officially fail, after it the amendment expanding background checks failed, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) pulled the legislation from the floor. Reid said he would bring it back up for a vote at a later date, but has not yet fulfilled that promise.
While Biden has nothing but put downs for Cruz and Paul, the presidential hopeful had only kind words for the guest of honor at the evening’s event, Ed Markey.
“Ed Markey in the Senate is not a single vote. Ed Markey in the Senate is part of a movement,” Biden said. “Ed Markey in the Senate will command respect and attention the moment he stands on the floor to speak for the first time.”
