Sen. Ted Cruz is now criticizing former President Donald Trump’s behavior following his November election loss, even though he pushed similar claims and voted against certifying the election results in President Biden’s favor.
Earlier this month, Cruz led a group of 11 senators calling for the appointment of an “electoral commission” with full investigatory authority to carry out a 10-day emergency audit of the Nov. 3 election results in the states where Trump and his allies alleged fraud prior to certification. But on Jan. 23, Cruz called the president’s repeated claims of a “stolen” election “reckless and irresponsible” on his podcast, Verdict.
“President Trump’s rhetoric, I think, went way too far over the line,” he said. “I think it was both reckless and irresponsible because he said repeatedly — and he said over and over again — he won by a landslide. There was massive fraud. It was all stolen everywhere. That evidence, the campaign did not prove that in any court. And to make a determination about an election, it has to be based on the evidence. And so simply saying the result you want, that’s not responsible, and you’ve never heard me use language like that.”
Cruz, who is said to have 2024 presidential aspirations, also explained where his divergence from the president came into play.
“What I’ve said is, voter fraud is real, and we need to examine the evidence and look at the actual facts. And, in particular, what is the evidence of how much voter fraud occurred, and did it occur in sufficient quantities and in sufficient states to alter the outcome of the election?” he said. “That would have been the mandate of the election commission — to assess.”
The Trump campaign, and a handful of GOP-adjacent groups, introduced dozens of election lawsuits challenging the results that were roundly rejected and dismissed. Many sought a handful of different legal avenues, from promoting conspiracy theories about voting machines and foreign influence to questioning the constitutionality of voting by mail and state legislature-induced changes to the election.
One theory floated was that then-Vice President Mike Pence could unilaterally accept and reject certain electoral results. However, Pence told Trump that was not within his power. Despite that, the president urged his supporters to go to the Capitol and demonstrate their disapproval of Congress’s intent to certify Biden’s electoral victory during a rally on Jan 6.
Rioters forced Congress to pause its session, and members were evacuated as the Capitol was breached by a group of protesters, resulting in the deaths of five people.
More than 100 arrests have been made in connection with the siege.
When the joint session came back hours later, Cruz and a handful of other Republican senators did not vote in favor of certifying the election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania.
Prior to the election certification, the Texas senator offered to argue an election lawsuit case, brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, should the Supreme Court agree to hear it. The lawsuit alleged that a handful of battleground states that went for Biden made unconstitutional changes to the way their state votes. The suit, which the Supreme Court decided not to hear, aimed at getting the highest court to rule that states can send electors to vote for Trump regardless of the Nov. 3 results.
Cruz and other Republicans who promoted the president’s unsubstantiated claims about the election, have faced a tough road since the certification. A handful of Democrats have called for an ethics investigation, and others demanded their resignations. Some of the Republicans facing ridicule have blasted the backlash as a form of censorship or cancel culture.
