Fox News host Sean Hannity told Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Monday evening that the battle he is waging against Obamacare by trying to defund it in the Continuing Resolution (CR) is a nexus point in the grassroots fight against the political establishment.
“Senator, I applaud your efforts, I’m with you in this,” Hannity said. “To me this is a tipping point for the country. Every Republican ran on this. Why they are opposing you, I don’t know. But I appreciate you fighting the good fight and it’s going to be a very interesting and historic week. Thank you for being with us.”
Cruz told Hannity he is going to fight with every bit of procedural means he has available to him. “I’m going to use whatever procedural means available to me to fight this fight,” Cruz said. “This is a multi-stage fight. Everything [is on the table], including filibuster.”
Cruz then walked through the multiple stages he is using to fight the battle. “The first stage was unifying the American people,” he said. “We’ve got over 1.6 million people who have signed the national petition at DontFundIt.com. The second step was the House vote on Friday defunding Obamacare. Just a couple of weeks ago, Washington said that was impossible. The third step is this week unifying Senate Republicans, getting all 46 Senate Republicans to stand together. And the next step is getting red state Democrats to come together to listen to the American people and stop the train wreck that is Obamacare.”
Cruz added that he thinks a vote by any Republican on Friday to allow Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to fund Obamacare through a series of procedural tricks to strip out the House-passed Obamacare defunding language is a vote for Obamacare.
“I can’t imagine any Republican who campaigned against Obamacare voting on Friday along with Harry Reid and every Senate Democrat to empower Harry Reid to fund Obamacare,” Cruz said. “It’s that Friday vote that matters. And this week, the phone calls to the Senators are going to make all the difference.”
At the beginning of the interview, Hannity noted that the fight right now falls onto the shoulders of Senate Republicans. Cruz agreed.
“The fight is in the Senate now, and the real question is whether Senate Republicans are going to unite and stand alongside House Republicans,” Cruz told Hannity.
Despite reports now that Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn are working against Cruz and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), Cruz remains optimistic that Republicans like them and others who campaigned against Obamacare will eventually lock arms with Cruz and Lee to fight Obamacare. “I think the votes are fluid right now,” Cruz said. “A couple of weeks ago, everyone agreed there was no chance the House would vote to defund Obamacare. And then on Friday, they did so. Right now, in the Senate, I think the votes are fluid.”
Later in the interview, Cruz added: “I hope and believe that all 46 Republicans should vote together on Friday against cutting off debate, against giving Harry Reid the power to fund Obamacare.”
Hannity also asked Cruz about all the efforts by certain GOP establishment types to undermine him, or make it appear as though he does not play well with others. “Look Sean, I have civil relations with every one of my colleagues, and there are some folks in Washington that are trying to make this issue about personalities, trying to make this about individual politicians,” Cruz said. “Look, most Americans don’t care about politicians in Washington. They care about their lives. They care about their jobs. They care about their families. Obamacare isn’t working. It’s killing jobs. It’s driving up health insurance premiums. It’s causing people to lose their health care. And so my view, I am ignoring all of the slings and arrows that are tossed around. It’s not personal about anyone in Washington. It’s about doing our job, about listening to the American people and bringing back jobs and economic growth.”
Hannity also asked Cruz that he cannot “name a single Republican Senator in either the House or the Senate, please correct me if I’m wrong, that did not run on a platform to repeal and replace Obamacare.”
“Right,” Cruz responded. “Right.”
WATCH VIDEO OF TED CRUZ ON HANNITY ON FOX NEWS:
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