Ted Cruz’s Electoral Vote Speech Will Live in Infamy

It is a challenge to decide which member of the sedition caucus is the most despicable. Personally, I rank Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are at the top of the list.  Both have Ivy League degrees, have clerked at the U.S. Supreme Court and are anything but dumb even if totally amoral.  Today both spoke against certification of the Electoral College results, lying through their teeth and further prostituting themselves to Trump's base of deplorables. Cruz spoke shortly before the Trump domestic terrorists/insurrectionists stormed and sacked the Capitol. More shockingly, Hawley spoke this evening and continued to spout the same lies and give credence to Trump's lies. A piece in the Washington Post looks at Cruz's lies and disgusting pandering to Trump's mob.  Here are highlights:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) thinks that he is quite clever. He built his political reputation on combating the Republican establishment, on being a thorn in their side who, despite his educational and career pedigree, stood with the far-right wing of his party. His strategy was clear: leverage the energy of the Republican fringe to earn a presidential nomination.

In 2016, he gave it a shot — only to see Donald Trump emerge from the world of celebrity to more effectively speak to Cruz’s intended voters.

As the Trump presidency unfolded, Cruz largely stood by him. After all, someone, at some point, would inherit that base of political support. Why not him? So over and over, Cruz has leveraged his college-debate-champ savvy on behalf of the president he once described as a “sniveling coward.”

After Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, Cruz stood with Trump as the president repeatedly misled his supporters about alleged voter fraud. As weeks went on and no evidence of said fraud emerged, Cruz and other Republicans on Capitol Hill were silent, betting that it was politically safer to stick with Trump than to stand with reality. When Trump’s efforts to seize a second consecutive term by subverting the will of the voters narrowed down to an effort to obstruct the formal counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6, Cruz jumped to the front of the line to promote the effort in the Senate.

On Wednesday, the time came for Cruz to make his case for why the transfer of power mandated by the Constitution should not occur.

“Mr. President,” he began, referring to the president of the Senate, “we gather together at a moment of great division, at a moment of great passion.”

“We have seen and no doubt will continue to see a great deal of moralizing from both sides of the aisle,” he continued. “But I would urge to both sides, perhaps a bit less certitude and a bit more recognition that we are gathered at a time when democracy is in crisis.”

How? Not because the president of the United States was lying to the public to seize power. No. Because the president’s supporters believed him.

“Recent polling shows that 39 percent of Americans believe the election that just occurred, quote, was rigged,” Cruz said. “You may not agree with that assessment. But it is nonetheless a reality for nearly half the country.”

“Even if you do not share that conviction, it is the responsibility, I believe, of this office to acknowledge that it is a profound threat to this country and to the legitimacy of any administrations that will come in the future,” he said.

All of this, from start to finish, is dishonest opportunism. Trump — and through omission, Cruz — misled the public in service of their own power. It’s no more complicated than that. Trump and Cruz made obviously untrue claims to an aggravated electorate, knowing that the claims were inaccurate, so that they could maintain power (in Trump’s case) or soon gain it (in Cruz’s). Even as temperatures rose and even as Trump encouraged massive protests at the Capitol in an effort to pressure legislators, Cruz did nothing more than nod along.

This was not Cruz’s first attempt to slyly thread the needle between what the far-right base wanted to hear and what was considered within the bounds of proper senatorial activity. But it was the first such attempt that took place against the backdrop of looming violence, of far-right protesters who had been actively discussing an armed insurrection making their way to Washington. Cruz, like Trump, figured he had a way to endear himself to the viper, to use it for his own advantage.

Within an hour of Cruz’s speech, a violent pro-Trump mob broke through a police line and forced their way into the Senate chamber itself. As of writing, the Capitol remains out of law enforcement’s control.

Cruz’s effort to walk the line failed. The viper devoured him. His speech Tuesday — a cynical effort to undermine democracy, some of the last words to echo in the chamber before he and his colleagues had to flee — will be one of his primary legacies.