Check this out about Senator Ted Cruz:
An examination by The Washington Post of Cruzâs actions between Election Day and Jan. 6, 2021, shows just how deeply he was involved, working directly with Trump to concoct a plan that came closer than widely realized to keeping him in power. As Cruz went to extraordinary lengths to court Trumpâs base and lay the groundwork for his own potential 2024 presidential bid, he also alienated close allies and longtime friends who accused him of abandoning his principles.
Now, Cruzâs efforts are of interest to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, in particular whether Cruz was in contact with Trump lawyerJohn Eastman, a conservative attorney who has been his friend for decades and who wrote key legal memos aimed at denying Bidenâs victory.
As Eastman outlined a scenario in whichVice President Mike Pence could denycertifying Bidenâs election, Cruz crafted a complementary plan in the Senate. He proposedobjecting to the results in six swing states and delayingaccepting the electoral college results on Jan. 6 in favor of a 10-day âauditâ â thus potentiallyenabling GOP state legislatures to overturn the result. Ten other senators backed hisproposal, which Cruz continued to advocate on the day rioters attacked the Capitol.
The committeeâs interest in Cruz is notable as investigators zero in on how closely Trumpâs allies coordinated with members of Congress in the attempt to block or delay certifying Bidenâs victory. If Cruzâs plan worked, it could have created enough chaos for Trump to remain in power.Advertisement
âIt was a very dangerous proposal, and, you know, could very easily have put us into territory where we got to the inauguration and there was not a president,â Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a Jan. 6 committee member, said earlier this year on the podcast âHonestly.â âAnd I think that Senator Cruz knew exactly what he was doing. I think that Senator Cruz is somebody who knows what the Constitution calls for, knows what his duties and obligations are, and was willing, frankly, to set that aside.â
The Jan. 6 committeeâs investigators have recently focused on Eastmanâs efforts to pressure Pence to declare Trump the winner, but there has been little public notice that Cruz and Eastman have known each other since they clerked together 27 years ago for then-U.S. Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig. Cruzâs proposal ran on a parallel track to Eastmanâs memos.
Luttig told The Post that he believesthat Cruz â who once said that Luttig was âlike a father to meâ â played a paramount role in the events leading to Jan. 6.
âOnce Ted Cruz promised to object, January 6 was all but foreordained, because Cruz was the most influential figure in the Congress willing to force a vote on Trumpâs claim that the election was stolen,â Luttig said in a statement to The Post. âHe was also the most knowledgeable of the intricacies of both the Electoral Count Act and the Constitution, and the ways to exploit the two.â
Eastman, asked in an inquiry by a lawyer for the Jan. 6 committee whether he had âany communication with Senator Ted Cruz regarding efforts to change the outcome of the 2020 election,â declined to answer by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Eastman and his lawyer, Charles Burnham, declined a request for comment.(Thus far, the Jan. 6 committee has not subpoenaed Cruz, or asked for his voluntary cooperation, according to a source familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential matters. The committee has not announced the subpoena of any member of Congress as it deliberates how aggressively to pursue that line of inquiry.)
Cruz, after initially agreeing to an interview with The Post at his Senate office, canceled shortly before it was to begin and declined to speak to a reporter. The Post then submitted a lengthy set of written questions, only some of which were addressed directly by Cruzâs spokeswoman.
Asked whether Cruz had communicated in any way with Eastman about challenging the election, the senatorâs spokeswoman, Maria Jeffrey Reynolds, did not respond directly.
âSen. Cruz has been friends with John Eastman since they clerked together in 1995,â Jeffrey Reynolds said via email. âTo the best of his recollection, he did not read the Eastman memo until months after January 6, when it was publicly reported.â
As for Cruzâs effort to fight the election results, the spokeswoman said: âHe has repeatedly observed that, had Congress followed the path he urged and appointed an Election Commission to conduct an emergency 10-day audit and consider on the merits the evidence of voter fraud, the American people would today have much greater confidence and trust in the integrity of our elections and our democracy.âAdvertisement
As Cruz fought to keep Trump in the White House, he frequently noted that this was not the first time he had played a leading role in trying to turn a contested election in favor of the Republican presidential candidate. Indeed, he had laid the groundwork 20 years earlier.
I give Cruz credit. He is one of the few to acknowledge that Bush vs Gore set the precedent for what they tried to do on January 6th.
Shortly after the 2000 presidential contest between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore, Cruz â then a 29-year-old graduate of Harvard Law School â received an urgent request: There was going to be a recount of the Florida vote and Bushâs campaign wanted his help.
Cruz rushed to Tallahassee and arrived that afternoon, and he said he believed that after a âquick, perfunctory legal proceeding,â Bush would be declared the winner. But there were serious questions about who had received the most votes in Florida. By Cruzâs account, he played a pivotal role, rewriting briefs and sleeping for âa total of seven hoursâ in his first six days in Florida. He wrote in his memoir that he and others on Bushâs team were convinced Gore âwas trying to steal the presidency.â
Cruz wrote that he was âastonishedâ at Goreâs move to contest the outcome, recalling how Richard M. Nixon had lost to John F. Kennedy amid fraud allegations but had âresisted the urge to contest the results and divide the country indefinitely. I thought it was a rather petulant display by Vice President Gore.â
Five years after writing those words in his 2015 memoir, it would be Cruz leading the charge to challenge a presidential election in an effort that continues to divide the country.
They literally have no shame. Or pride. Or integrity.
Two days after the 2020 election, as absentee ballot counts in swing states piled up in Bidenâs favor,Trump tweeted the falsehood that âI WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!â Around the time he sent that tweet, the president talked with Cruz on the phone, the senator from Texas has said.
Trumpâs call underscored their remarkable reconciliation. During the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump had called Cruz âthe single biggest liar I have ever dealt with in my lifeâ and attacked Cruzâs wife and father. Cruz called Trump an âarrogant buffoon,â and refused to endorse the nominee at the Republican National Convention, which got him booed off the stage.Advertisement
But in September 2016, Cruz offered a quid pro quo: He would back Trump if the candidate agreed to select a Supreme Court justice from a Cruz-approved list. âThe price of my endorsement was explicit,â Cruz later wrote in his book âOne Vote Away.â Trump agreed, Cruz wrote. The nominee switched from calling Cruz âLyinâ Tedâ to âBeautiful Ted,â while the senator stood by Trump after The Post revealed the âAccess Hollywoodâ tape in which Trump talked in vulgar terms about women. Cruz became a staunch ally during Trumpâs presidency.
When Trump talked to Cruz two days after the 2020 election, the senatorâs allegiance was tested anew. That night, to the shock of some of his aides, Cruz amplifiedTrumpâs stolen-election claims on the Fox News show hosted by Sean Hannity, who moonlighted as one of Trumpâs most influential advisers. He told Hannityâs millions of viewers that Democrats were âdefying the lawâ because they didnât want GOP observers to see ballot counting.
âThey are setting the stage to potentially steal an election not just from the president but from the media,â Cruz said.(The allegation that Republican observers were kept from seeing the vote count was rebutted by those who ran the ballot operation and rejected by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.)Advertisement
In the weeks that followed, as Trump allies lost a string of election cases, Cruz began suggesting he could lead a more effective legal strategy. He talked about his success in helping Bushâs legal team and howhe had argued a total of nine cases before the Supreme Court, mostly as the Texas solicitor general. Two days later, he announced he had agreed to represent Pennsylvania Republicans in their effort to block certification of that stateâs presidential results. The Supreme Court rejected that request, though, a near-fatal blow to efforts to overturn the election in the courts.
But the next day, Trump and Cruz focused on another avenue to put the matter before the Supreme Court: a case filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who argued his state had standing to ask the court to throw out election results in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.
When Trump called on Dec. 8 as Cruz dined out, the president asked whether he was surprised about the loss of the Pennsylvania case, Cruz later recalled on his podcast, âVerdict with Ted Cruz.â Cruz said he was unhappy but ânot shockedâ that the federal court did not take a case about state law: âThat was a challenging hurdle.â
When Cruz agreed to Trumpâs request to argue the Texascase, it shocked some who knew him best. One adviser said he called Cruz to express dismay, telling the senator it went against the principles on which he built his political brand.Advertisement
âIf youâre a conservative federalist, the idea that one state can tell another state how to run their elections is outrageous, but he somehow contorted in his mind that it would be okay for him to argue that case,â said the adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.), who had served as Cruzâs chief of staff and was a former first assistant attorney general in Paxtonâs office, tweeted that the case ârepresents a dangerous violation of federalismâ that âwill almost certainly fail.â He did not respond to a request for comment.
Cruzâs spokeswoman said that he agreed to Trumpâs request because âhe believed Texas deserved to have effective advocacyâ but said that âhe told President Trump at the time that he believed the Court was unlikely to take the Texas case.â
Cruzâs cooperation was seen as crucial by Trumpâs allies. They believed his experience and standing as a senator brought credibility in comparison to the much-criticized work of Trumpâs other attorneys, like former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who would later have his New York state license suspended for making âdemonstrably false and misleading statementsâ about the election. (Giuliani could not be reached for comment.)
With Cruzâs commitment secured, Trump tweeted the next morning: âWe will be INTERVENING in the Texas (plus many other states) case. This is the big one. Our Country needs a victory!â
But the Supreme Court rejected the case â the second straight decision in which it turned down Trumpâs allies.
So Cruz focused on a congressional plan. At least one member of the U.S. House and Senate was needed to contest a stateâs presidential results. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) had announced his intent to do so, and he found his Senate partner on Dec. 30 when Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) volunteered.
Eastman and Cruzâs actions soon began to directly complement each other.
Eastman wrote in the first of his two memos about overturning the election that his plan relied on a senator delaying certification â and he specifically mentioned the possibility that Cruz could do it. A second version of that memo doesnât mention Cruz, but the first line in the six-page document still argues that state legislatures have the power to choose electors â mirroring Cruzâs plan.
Cruzâs role in the Senate was crucial because it was not clear that any other senator would join Hawley, a freshman who had campaigned as an outsider without Washington relationships.
On Jan. 2, 2021, Cruz unveiled his plan for states to start an âemergency 10-day audit,âbacked by 10 other senators. The idea was met with ridicule even from some of Trumpâs most vociferous supporters. âProposing a commission at this late date â which has zero chance of becoming reality â is not effectively fighting for President Trump,â Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said on Twitter. The conservative magazine National Review lambasted the idea in an article headlined: âThe Folly of the Cruz Eleven.â
Cruz nonetheless pushed forward. Trump promptly tweeted his delight that the effort was âled by Sen. Ted Cruz.â
Eastman, meanwhile, met at the White House on Jan. 4 with Trump and Pence to discuss his plan. The next evening, Cruz appeared on Hannityâs show. Without noting that he had played a key role in spreading Trumpâs false election claims on the same show two months earlier, Cruz told Hannity: âWe have an obligation to the country. You know, you look at polling right now that shows that 39 percent of Americans believe the election was rigged. Thatâs heartbreaking.â
The piece goes on to say that Cruz actually lost some allies for doing this. He had allies?
The next morning, at 8:17 a.m. on Jan. 6, Trump tweeted his support for the proposal that had been put forward by Cruz, without mentioning his name. He called for Pence to send the matter back to the states, which was in line with the senatorâs proposal for a 10-day audit.
âStates want to correct their votes, which they now know were based on irregularities and fraud, plus corrupt process never received legislative approval,â Trump tweeted.
Cruzâs advisers were conflicted. Some supported making every effort to overturn the election, but a number of them directly urged him not to support Trumpâs false claims. One adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a confidential conversation, asked Cruz to certify Bidenâs election by citing a Post report about Trumpâs phone call urging Georgiaâs secretary of state to find enough votes to declare him the winner.
An even stronger rebuff came from one of Cruzâs most important allies: Chad Sweet, the former chairman of his 2016 presidential campaign. Sweet had known Cruz since they worked together on Bushâs reelection campaign in 2004. They had talked and debated countless times over the prior 16 years.
Now, just before the events of Jan. 6, Sweet urgedthe senatornot to challenge the results. Sweet had helped create a nonpartisan group in 2020 called Citizens for a Strong Democracy, which focused on strengthening public confidence in election systems. So he was intimately familiar with how falsehoods were being used to try to overturn Bidenâs win.
Sweet told Cruz âthat if he proceeded to object to the Electoral count of the legitimate slates of delegates certified by the States, I could no longer support him,â Sweet later wrote on his LinkedIn page.
But Cruz rejected his friendâs advice.
Cruz was the first Senator to voice an objection that morning, following Peter Navarro’s stupid “Green Bay Sweep” plan.
In his Senate speech, Cruz stressed that he objected to âall six of the contested statesâ and urged approval of his audit plan. As he spoke, rioters were already storming the outer barricade west of the Capitol. He based his plan on a provision in the Constitution that says, âEach State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors.â
While legislatures previously had determined electors based on the popular votes, legal scholars said it was notable that the Supreme Court, in the 2000 Bush v. Gore case in which Cruz participated, said that a state legislature âmay, if it so choose, select the electors itself.â
Austin Sarat, a professor of law and politics at Amherst College, said Cruzâs plan had a deeper constitutional underpinningthan Eastmanâs outline of a scenario in whichPence could overturn the election himself, although Sarat stressed he didnât agree with it.
âI think that Cruz thing was much more dangerous because it has the kind of `constitutional plausibilityâ that the Pence thing never had,â Sarat said. âNot because it was well-grounded, but one could make the argument the Constitution provides for it.â
In fact, there was no evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the results in any of the six states that Cruz said he contested. Soon after Cruz finished speaking, rioters began breaking into the Capitol, and he went to a secure location.
Hours later, after the rioters were removed and the Senate returned to its session, Eastman emailed Penceâs lawyer, Greg Jacob, at 9:44 p.m., to plead for one last effort. Eastman suggested a âminor violationâ of the law to enable a 10-day delay for legislatures to conduct an audit, according to a document released by the Jan. 6 committee â again mirroring Cruzâs plan.
Cruzâs effort to reject the Arizona results failed by a vote of 93-to-6. It seemed clear his path to overturn the election was over, and he huddled with his staff about whether to proceed with his plan to object to the Pennsylvania results.
For months, one of those staffers, communications director Lauren Bianchi, had promoted Cruz to the press as a smart and savvy constitutionalist. But now, in a telephone conference call with the senator and other aides, she pleaded with Cruz to stop. At that moment, she said in an interview with The Post, âI felt like he wanted to hear what I wanted to say.â
So she spoke up.
âMy message to the senator, after reflecting on the day and seeing how the country was being torn apart, was: `Weâre going to live tofight another day. There are concerns about election integrity. Letâs keep fighting but today is no longer the day to fight. You need to be a unifier.’ â
âSenator,â Bianchi said she told Cruz, âyou need to be the adult in the room.â
As she hung up the phone, Bianchi said, âI felt very aloneâ and she wasnât sure what Cruz would do.
He rejected her advice.
In the days that followed many of his closest allies broke their ties.
Carly Fiorina, who Cruz chose to be his running mate in 2016 said in interview with Washington Post Live in May 2021 that she thought Cruz had spread unsubstantiated claims of election fraud, Fiorina said of Cruz and others who aided Trump, âMy only explanation is theyâre focused on short-term political gain, political expediency and clinging to power.â
Ya think?
Cruz, meanwhile, is making all the moves of a likely 2024 presidential candidate appealing to the Trump base.
He went on Tucker Carlsonâs Fox News show to apologize for calling Jan. 6 âa violent terrorist attack,â saying his âfrankly dumbâ language referred only to those who attacked police officers, not âpeaceful protesters supporting Donald Trump.â He played up claims that the government was somehow involved in the attack on the Capitol, asking an FBI official at a Senate hearing, âHow many FBI agents or confidential informants actively participated in the events of Jan. 6?â
Last month, he visited Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida and tweeted a photo of the meeting. He rode shotgun in the lead vehicle in a trucker convoy protesting pandemic-related mandates in a March 10 event. He posed a series of confrontational questions to Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson regarding her views on anti-racism.
Asked recently by an online site called the Truth Gazette whether he is considering seeking the presidency again, he responded: âAbsolutely, in a heartbeat.â
God have mercy on our souls.
