Last summer, Senator Ted Cruz took to the Senate floor and proceeded to mop it up with the remains of Mitch McConnell’s integrity, blasting him for lying to the Senate and the American people by striking a backdoor deal with Democrats.
A brief background on that incident:
McConnell was the subject of Cruz’s ire for setting up a reauthorization bill for the Export-Import Bank of the United States. Cruz, like many conservatives, opposed the bank’s reauthorization.
Cruz asked McConnell if he had struck a deal for the vote with Democrats:
We had a Senate Republican lunch where I stood up and I asked the majority leader very directly, what was the deal that was just cut on [trade] legislation, and was there a deal for the Export-Import Bank? It was a direct question. I asked the majority leader in front of all the Republican senators. The majority leader was visibly angry with me that I would ask such a question, and the majority leader looked at me and said, “There is no deal, there is no deal, there is no deal.”
Cruz noted that McConnell repeated the ‘no deal’ assertion three times, “like Saint Peter.”
And like Saint Peter, Cruz says, McConnell lied.
With that in mind, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Cruz to apologize, saying “it could help you.”
“That ain’t going to happen,” Cruz said. “If Washington lobbyists want to see that happen, they can hold their breath a long, long time.”
Watch the exchange below …
Ted Cruz says he will not apologize to Mitch McConnell https://t.co/2SolSkLpZt https://t.co/faIezBeiDG
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) April 7, 2016
Via The Blaze:
Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz declined Thursday to apologize for calling Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) a liar on the Senate floor last summer.
“Will you apologize?” CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash asked the Texas senator during a sit-down interview, noting that doing so could earn him backing from several Republican senators.
…
“So no apology to Mitch McConnell? Because it could help you,” Bash said.
“Look, my focus is not on Washington,” Cruz said. “That ain’t going to happen. If Washington lobbyists want to see that happen, they can hold their breath a long, long time.”
Comment: Should Ted Cruz apologize for calling McConnell a liar, or should McConnell apologize for lying and striking backdoor deals with Democrats?