‘You Voted Against Everyone Except Lloyd Austin’: Kaitlan Collins Reminds Ted Cruz He Opposed Biden’s Cabinet Picks
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins reminded Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) that he voted against the vast majority of President Joe Biden’s cabinet nominees.
The senator appeared on Tuesday’s edition of The Source, where he and Collins discussed the cabinet nominations made by President-elect Donald Trump, who has made several controversial picks.
At the forefront of these is Pete Hegseth, whom Trump tapped for Secretary of Defense.
A woman alleged to police in 2017 that Hegseth raped her in a hotel room in Monterey, California. No charges were filed, and he denies the allegation. Hegseth paid the woman an undisclosed sum. He also reportedly told his first wife he had five affairs while they were married. Moreover, several of Hegseth’s former Fox News colleagues alleged he had a drinking problem, which he also denies.
“You’ve got 53 Republicans in the Senate,” Cruz observed. “And I think most Republican senators begin from a proposition that the president is entitled to choose his cabinet nominees. Now, there is a back and forth on it.”
The senator then cited the withdrawal of Matt Gaetz as Trump’s attorney general after some Republican senators expressed concern about an allegation that he slept with a 17-year-old girl. Gaetz denies the accusation.
“And so the advice and consent is part of the Constitution,” Cruz continued. “And by the way, when Joe Biden was president, that’s the same way Democrats approached it, which is they voted to confirm whoever he put up.”
The host responded by noting Cruz’s opposition to Biden’s cabinet nominees:
COLLINS: When we hear some Republicans saying, “The president’s entitled to his nominees,” I’ve heard some people push back and say, well, we’ve seen Republicans vote against all of Biden’s picks. You know, you voted for against everyone except Lloyd Austin.
CRUZ: Yeah, but look, I mean, a lot of Biden’s picks, I think were extreme. You look at someone like Merrick Garland. I think Merrick Garland has been the most partisan and political attorney general the country’s ever seen. You look at someone like Alejandro Mayorkas, who opened up the border and caused an invasion at our southern border. It actually– I was surprised Biden did not nominate more moderate candidates. You look at Trump. Trump’s nominated several people who were Democrats until like 12 minutes ago.
Some of the former Democrats Trump has nominated include Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services. He has falsely claimed that vaccines cause autism and that the Covid vaccine has killed millions. Tulsi Gabbard has been chosen to be Director of National Intelligence after proliferating Russian propaganda and visiting then-Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad twice.
Watch above via CNN.
