User:Informant16/Senate career of Ted Cruz

Activities during second Obama term, 2013–2017

In February 2013, during a Senate debate on the potential confirmation of Chuck Hagel for United States Secretary of Defense, Cruz suggested Hagel had received funding from foreign countries: "It is at a minimum relevant to know if that $200,000 that he deposited in his bank account came directly from Saudi Arabia, came directly from North Korea." The claim was rebuked by both Senate Democrats and Republicans and seen as furthering Cruz's profile in the Senate, Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times commenting, "In just two months, Mr. Cruz, 42, has made his presence felt in an institution where new arrivals are usually not heard from for months, if not years."

On September 24, 2013, Cruz began a speech on the floor of the Senate regarding the Affordable Care Act relative to a continuing resolution designed to fund the government and avert a government shutdown. Cruz promised to keep speaking until he was "no longer able to stand." Cruz yielded the floor at noon the following day for the start of the proceeding legislative session after twenty-one hours nineteen minutes. His speech was the fourth-longest in United States Senate history. Following Cruz's speech, the Senate voted 100–0 regarding a "procedural hurdle toward passing a stopgap funding bill to avert a government shutdown." Cruz was joined by 18 Republican senators in his effort to prevent stripping out a clause that would have defunded the Affordable Care by voting against the cloture motion, leaving the effort 21 votes short of the required number to deny cloture.

During a November 8, 2013 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Cruz was asked by Leno about reports of his lack of popularity with colleagues, responding, "You know, what I'm trying to do is my job, and occasionally people don't like that."

During a December 5, 2013 speech at an American Legislative Exchange Council-hosted summit, regarding his actions against the Affordable Care Act, Cruz said that people had come to understand "what this is all about" since the shutdown and told the American Legislative Exchange Council to stand its ground in the face of criticism.

On March 6, 2014, Cruz spoke at the annual Conservative Political Action Committee, reflecting the Republican Party lost the 2006, 2008, and 2012 elections due to putting their heads down and standing for nothing and said Republican candidates should stand for principles to win elections: "Those are good men, those are decent men — but when you don’t stand and draw a clear distinction, when you don’t stand for principle, Democrats celebrate."

During a February 27, 2015 speech at the annual Club for Growth in Palm Beach, Florida, Cruz said not spending enough time explaining his strategy to "elite opinion makers" his biggest mistake during the events preceding the federal government shutdown.

On June 12, 2016, shortly after the Orlando nightclub shooting, Cruz released a statement on what he believed Democrats would do in response to the shooting: "Democrats will try to use this attack to change the subject. As a matter of rigid ideology, far too many Democrats — from Barack Obama to Hillary Clinton — will refuse to utter the words 'radical Islamic terrorism.'"

Activities during Trump term, 2017–present

On January 31, 2017, after President Trump announced his choice of Neil Gorsuch for the United States Supreme Court, Cruz asserted during an interview that the Democrats would not be successful in preventing Gorsuch from replacing Scalia. The following day, during an appearance on Fox & Friends, Cruz assessed that the Supreme Court pick and its announcement "was the most important moment in the first two weeks of our presidency." While speaking at the annual Conservative Political Action Committee on February 23, Cruz said "I think we'll have another Supreme Court vacancy this summer." During a March 19 appearance on Face the Nation, Cruz predicted Gorsuch would be confirmed and be on the Supreme Court "within a month or two." The following day, Cruz appeared at the confirmation hearing of Gorsuch, expressing issue with the questions posed by Democrats to the nominee: "Those questions were not asked because they were inappropriate political questions that have nothing to do with the record of the nominee before this committee. Justice Ginsberg, Justice Breyer ... were not asked those questions, and Judge Gorsuch should not be either."

On February 8, 2017, during an interview on Fox News, the day after fellow Senator Elizabeth Warren was formally silenced by a Senate vote during the confirmation hearing of Senator Jeff Sessions for United States Attorney General, Cruz asserted the Democratic Party had members who found the Ku Klux Klan along with opposition to integration and support for Jim Crow laws: "The Klan was founded by great many Democrats and now the Democrats just accuse anyone they disagree with of being a racist."

Affordable Care Act repeal

On April 11, Cruz said he believed the promise by Republicans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act was "a promise we can and will keep" during an appearance at Peterbilt Motors Co. Manufacturing in Denton, Texas. On May 6, while speaking to radio host Larry Kudlow, Cruz said there would be "catastrophic" consequences if the Senate was unable to vote for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act. On July 6, Cruz said he believed "President Trump’s absolutely right that we should pass a clean repeal" in the event that Senate Republicans could not unilaterally support a repeal bill. On July 13, Cruz told reporters he would support the changed Affordable Care Act replacement bill, though warned his views would change "if it's amended and we lose the protections that lower premiums". On July 21, during an appearance on Fox & Friends, Cruz said "Republicans will look like fools" if they do not succeed in repealing the Affordable Care Act. The following day, Cruz said there would be complications for tax reform if the Affordable Care Act repeal fell through: "If we get ObamaCare done – and I think we've got to – then I think the chances of tax reform skyrocket. If ObamaCare crashes and burns, I think the chances of tax reform drop significantly." On July 28, while speaking to Fox News after the Senate's rejection of a skinny Affordable Care Act repeal, Cruz predicted Americans feeling "a sense of betrayal" by Republicans who pledged to end the law.

North Korea

In March 2017, in response to the assassination of Kim Jong-nam the previous month, Cruz said the killing evidenced why North Korea should be relisted as a state sponsor of terrorism and stated his intent to introduce a measure to provide pressure on the country. In September 2017, Cruz stated a recent nuclear test in North Korea was further validating Pyongyang's ability to commit mass murder and his support for an executive order by President Trump imposing sanctions on North Korea: "This decision is a step in the right direction to impose a real cost on Kim Jong-un for his reckless pursuit of destruction."