By Isaac Schorr
Thursday, January 07, 2021
TrusTED. That was one of the Ted Cruz presidential
campaign’s favorite refrains in 2016. At the time, it made some sense. Cruz,
for all of his obvious ambition and penchant for stunts (remember when he read Green
Eggs and Ham during a 21-hour speech to the U.S. Senate in 2013?) was one
of the two or three most conservative members of the upper chamber (depending
on your measure). And although his antics often irritated his colleagues —
Lindsey Graham once remarked that “if you killed Ted Cruz on the floor of the
Senate, and the trial was in the Senate, nobody would convict you” — they did
help him gain the trust of the Republican base.
It wasn’t enough in 2016, though. Donald Trump stole the
show by making Cruz’s antics look like child’s play, and the rest of the
Republican primary field was too fractured to coalesce around someone fit for
office. Cruz had to settle for silver. For a moment, at the 2016 Republican
National Convention (RNC), it seemed that you might really be able to continue
to trust Ted. In his address, Cruz declined to endorse the nominee, instead
declaring the following:
If you love our country, and love
your children as much as I know that you do, stand and speak and vote your
conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend
our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.
Right then, it looked as if Cruz may have really meant
everything he had said and done during his first term in the Senate. Perhaps
they hadn’t been cynical political ploys. Perhaps he really was a man of
principle.
Wrong.
Surprised by the chorus of boos that greeted him at the
RNC and chastened by the avalanche of criticism that he faced in his speech’s
aftermath, Cruz backpedaled and endorsed Trump. Without exception, Ted Cruz
will do whatever Ted Cruz believes is best for Ted Cruz’s career. Unfortunately
for Ted Cruz, and for the rest of us, he is sometimes hopelessly wrong about
what exactly that is.
Which brings us to yesterday, when rioters who attended
President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally tore down fencing, climbed over
barriers, and attacked law enforcement while Vice President Mike Pence and both
chambers of Congress were busy certifying the Electoral College results inside
the Capitol. The Madison Building (part of the Library of Congress,) Cannon
House Office Building, and eventually the Capitol itself were
all evacuated, as were some private
residences on the Hill. A pipe
bomb was found at the Republican National Committee. Authorities were
thankfully able to safely detonate it before things got even uglier and
bloodier. Inside the Capitol, National Review’s John McCormack reported
that the Senate
loudspeaker warned its inhabitants to stay away from windows and doors, and
that gas was used to repel rioters. That was before the massive incursion into
the building forced the evacuation. Four people died in the ensuing American
carnage. And instead of unequivocally condemning the violence and disorder,
Trump egged them on.
He tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what
should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution” because the
vice president wouldn’t unilaterally yet impotently attempt to overturn the
November election. In so doing, he put a target on the back of the man a
heartbeat away from the presidency. A man who already found himself in
dangerous circumstances of Trump’s own making. Once rioters entered the
Capitol, they reportedly hunted
for Pence; God only knows what would have happened if they had found him.
Trump urged the rioters to “stay” peaceful after they had
already attacked law enforcement, broken windows, and forced their way into the
building. When he finally instructed his rioters to go home, hours after what
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell characterized as a “failed insurrection”
had begun, he reiterated that he believed the election to have been stolen and
assured the thugs inside the Capitol, “We love you, you’re very special.” A day
that began with President Trump’s rally ended with death, destruction, and
desecration.
Yet the origin of yesterday’s events was not a rally —
sure, that was the spark — but an idea. A deeply pernicious idea that the
election had been stolen from President Trump. An idea propagated by none other
than Ted Cruz. Prior to yesterday’s events, Cruz had pledged to object to the
certification of the Electoral College vote in all of the battleground states
and to call for an electoral commission to investigate the myriad fraud claims
made by the president and his legal team over the last two months. Forget that
these claims have been investigated, litigated, and disproved over and over
again, Cruz was willing to muddy the waters further, divide the country more
deeply, and even risk violence to do what he does best: stage a political
stunt.
In fact, he still is. Even after the siege on the Capitol
Building, Cruz shamelessly voted to overturn the results of the election and
throw out the electoral votes in both Arizona and Pennsylvania. Right when his
country and party needed him most, when its most high-profile, rock-ribbed,
ruby-red conservative in the Senate could have stood up and said “enough” to
the lies, he couldn’t bring himself to be any more responsible than Donald
Trump. Except Cruz is perhaps even more culpable, since he assuredly knows
better.
Mitch McConnell gave extraordinary speeches before and
after the attack on the Capitol, dismissing the president’s conspiracy theories
and calling the vote to certify the election results the most important of his
career. Mitt Romney blasted the president for allowing his “injured pride” to
“incite an insurrection.” Ben Sasse and Mike Lee both unequivocally denounced
the effort to overturn the election and the incursion on the Capitol. But many
Republicans believe Romney to be a squish, McConnell to be a snake, Sasse to be
a glorified history professor, and they don’t know who Mike Lee is. Only Cruz
had the trust and stature within the party to end this.
This hour was made to be Ted Cruz’s finest. Instead, it
was his most dishonorable.
No comments:
Post a Comment