Sen. Ted Cruz: Dems Comfortable Trafficking in Bigotry, Racism

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, accused Democrats and allied reporters of regularly employing bigotry and racism to achieve their ends and told Newsmax TV on Wednesday they are especially comfortable using it in the hopes of passing their election law bill in Congress.

His remarks on "Rob Schmitt Tonight" followed comments by MSNBC host Joy Reid, who referred to the Texas Republican as "Stephen from 'Django Unchained,'" accusing him of acting to keep "fellow people of color" from voting.

"Well, look, unfortunately the left regularly traffics in racism and bigotry and their view is that any minority, I'm Hispanic, if you're Hispanic, if you're African American, you are not allowed to disagree with your leftist overlords," Cruz said. "You must obey their orthodoxy or they will ridicule you. They'll attack you, they’ll mock you, and I got to say, the left really is quite comfortable with seeing that kind of bigotry play out."

Cruz, along with many Republicans, have railed against a proposed Democrat bill that would restrict or bar election security laws, such as requiring identification to vote, as a method of entrenching their power.

"So, you look at what the 'Corrupt Politicians Act' does," Cruz said. "It federalizes elections across this country and it strikes down almost every reasonable voter integrity law. So, you just mentioned voter ID laws. Twenty-nine states across the country quite reasonably have implemented voter ID laws. In Texas, if you want to vote, you have got to show a picture ID.

"The Corrupt Politicians Act strikes every one of those laws down and what you said is exactly right, 75% of Americans support voter ID laws, 60% of Democrats support them, and about 60% of African Americans support them, right? But the Democrats strike every one of them down."

With the Senate evenly split between Republicans and Democrats, Cruz said the GOP basing their hopes Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., will uphold their vow to not vote with their fellow Democrats in favor of eliminating the filibuster and therefore keep the election bill from passing is risky.

"Right now there are 48 Democrats that are perfectly prepared to end the filibuster," Cruz said. "If Manchin and Sinema give in, they will pass the Corrupt Politicians Act, and I've got to  tell you . . . I am concerned. I am very worried.

"I've served nine years with Joe Manchin. He's a very nice guy. He's a very affable guy. I've never seen him once stand up to [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer in any instance where his vote was the deciding vote and it mattered. And, so, if past history is any indication, the most likely outcome is that Manchin and Sinema are going to roll over and let Schumer ram this through."