Senator Cruz Torches Fauci, Vax Mandates and the NBA

BUCK: I think we have Senator Cruz. Are you there?

SEN. CRUZ: Yes, good to be with you guys. I heard part of the question but not all of it.

BUCK: Fauci said illegals, there’s different set of rules for them when it comes to covid restrictions. What the heck is going on there, Senator?

SEN. CRUZ: Well, I did like your reference to Lord Fauci. I think it ought to be “Little Lord Fauchleroy.”

CLAY: (chuckling)

SEN. CRUZ: Look, his answer demonstrated the absolute hypocrisy and the partisanship that you have seen from Fauci and from the bureaucrats in the Biden administration from day one. The obvious answer is is it a problem from a perspective of covid, from a perspective of a pandemic?

Is it a problem to have two million people come here illegally not to test them for covid, for the Biden administration to release them when they have covid? Of course it’s a problem! Any kindergartner wearing a Playskool stethoscope knows it’s a problem to release two million people them without testing them, many of whom have covid. Fauci doesn’t want say that because it’s politically inconvenient.

But he’s more than happy to embrace the partisan talking points of the Biden White House, and I think Fauci is the single-most dangerous bureaucrat in the history of America, and I think he has done more to undermine the credibility of scientists and our health officials than anyone in the history of the country, and I think it’s profoundly dangerous.

CLAY: We’re speaking to Ted Cruz of Texas. Senator Cruz, a bunch of courts have already weighed in — I believe a panel of three judges in the Fifth Circuit — striking down the OSHA Biden mandate. You understand how this plays out both at the legislative and legal level at the highest level. Where does this go from here?

SEN. CRUZ: Well, these mandates are illegal, they’re unconstitutional and they’re an abuse of power. The Biden White House has issued four different vaccine mandates. One is directed at active-duty military — soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines. One is directed at federal civilian employees. One is directed at federal contractors, anyone that does business with the federal government.

And then finally, one is directed at private employers that have 100 or more employees. That’s the one that’s done through OSHA. All of them are illegal, and they have… The order I laid them out in is descending order of the legal basis for those orders. So the most obviously lawless of the four is the OSHA order for private employers. The Biden administration has faced lawsuits all over the country challenging those mandates.

As you noted, federal court after federal court has enjoined the mandates, has said, “These are contrary to law.” Now it’s in the early stages of litigation. So the injunctions were issued because the courts determined that there was a likelihood of success on the merits by the plaintiffs. Now, that doesn’t mean they’ve won. It means they’ve made an early determination that they’ve made a serious showing of violation of law.

What is amazing is, number one, I believe Joe Biden and the Biden White House knew full well these orders were illegal when they issued them. I think the White House lawyers and the Department of Justice lawyers told them, “These are illegal,” and I think they cynically issued them anyway because they assumed that a great many people would obey them and it would take time for the courts to strike them down.

But number two, we don’t have to speculate about that, because when the Federal Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit enjoined the order — the vaccine mandate for private employers — the next day, the White House Press Office stood up at the podium and told people, “You should obey the order anyway. Even though the federal courts have enjoined it, have shut it down, you should obey it anyway,” and that is utterly lawless.

This crisis has revealed petty authoritarians who are willing to trample on your individual freedom. When it comes to vaccines, I support vaccines. I’ve been vaccinated. My family’s been vaccinated. But I also believe in individual choice and autonomy and freedom, and these Democrats who want to order you to get a health care procedure against your wishes, it is absolute abuse of power.

CLAY: Let’s come back here with Senator Ted Cruz from Texas in just a few minutes. Stay with us, folks.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

BUCK: We’re talking to Senator Cruz of Texas. Senator Cruz, I have to ask you. You saw, I’m sure, over the weekend Fauci sitting down with sitting down with Margaret Brennan of CBS, and for no apparent reason he swatted down criticism of his decision-making — which, of course, he’s a bureaucrat. He shouldn’t be making decisions for the whole country. But he is. He threw in January 6.

SEN. CRUZ: (laughing)

BUCK: I’ve been saying he’s obviously a partisan hack for about 18 months now. But what does that say to you?

SEN. CRUZ: Exactly what you said, that he’s a partisan hack. But it’s worse than that. He has been drinking his own Kool-Aid. The arrogance of Dr. Fauci is now… It almost became a self-parody. A little later in the interview he said, “I represent science. I am science,” and it’s bizarre. He said, “You can’t criticize me because to criticize me is to criticize science!”

What utter and complete garbage. Let’s be clear, by the way: Fauci has managed to be wrong on covid repeatedly throughout this crisis. At the beginning, he said, covid’s not serious. It’s not a threat to American health. He was wrong on that. At the beginning, he said, don’t wear masks. Masks don’t do anything to prevent the spread of covid.

Now, apparently, he thinks he was wrong on that. At the beginning, he said, there’s no evidence this came from the Wuhan lab, the Wuhan Institute of Virology. That was a lie at the time. He knew it was a lie at the time. He was in email communications with Mark Zuckerberg urging Facebook to silence anyone from pointing out the overwhelming evidence that this escaped from a Chinese government lab.

Most strikingly… So the question that Margaret Brennan asked him is she said, “Well, Ted Cruz has called for you to be prosecuted,” and he came back with, “(snickering) What about January 6! Heh-heh-heh.” He was like Beavis and Butthead.” He just screamed, “Liar! Liar! Liar!” Well, when it comes to being prosecuted, that’s actually a legal question, and I didn’t just randomly call for someone to be prosecuted because I don’t like them.

You prosecute someone when they have committed a crime, when they have committed a felony. And specifically, Fauci came before Congress and he testified that the NIH has not and never has funded gain-of-function research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. It was categorical. It was an absolute statement. Subsequently, the NIH, in writing, has refuted that statement and said, well, actually they did fund research that, by all appearances, was gain-of-function research.

Gain-of-function research is when scientists take a virus, and they make it more dangerous. They make it more contagious. They make it a greater threat to human health and safety. What appears to be the case is that it was Dr. Fauci and the American government that was helping fund what may well be the experiments that developed covid-19. We need to know the answer to that.

We don’t have enough information to know that conclusively. But what we do know is that on the face of it, what Fauci told Congress and what the NIH has said in writing, are directly contradictory, and it is a felony under 18 USC Section 1001. It’s a felony punishable by up to five years in prison to lie to Congress. And that, on the face of it, is what Fauci appears to have done. His response, he didn’t say a word of it to Margaret Brennan.

I will say it was unfortunate. Look, I think Margaret is a talented journalist. It is a shame she didn’t actually follow up and say, “Well, here was the specific quote. Here’s what you said. Here’s what the NIH said. Aren’t these contradictory, and why shouldn’t you be prosecuted for lying to Congress?”

Instead, she allowed him to get by with just a partisan insult, and it says something about his arrogance that he believes all he needs to do is virtue signal the leftist, “Hey, I’m a leftist, too,” and he doesn’t actually have to follow the law or tell the truth and he can remain dishonest with the American people. I think that’s really unfortunate.

CLAY: Senator Cruz, we know you have a meeting. The last question for you and you can be quick on this. We appreciate you making the time. Enes Kanter has changed his last name to Freedom. He’s become a citizen of the United States. He’s attacking China aggressively.

The WTA has also announced that they are pulling their events out of China over Peng Shuai, a basically disappearing women’s tennis player. Are you encouraged by suddenly seeing American athletes and organizations standing up to communist China?

SEN. CRUZ: Very much so. Peng Shuai has demonstrated enormous courage. She publicly accused a senior Chinese communist official of sexually assaulting her. Within about 30 minutes, they took down that post and they essentially disappeared her. She was the number one-ranked women’s doubles player in the world, the only Chinese national to be ranked number one in the world, and they just disappeared her.

And the Women’s Tennis Association has shown extraordinary courage, calling out the Chinese communist government, demanding that Peng Shuai be released and that she be free. And they put their money where their mouth is. This week the Women’s Tennis Association canceled their events in China, giving up millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars by doing so.

And I’ve got to say, it is a stark contrast to the NBA. You and I are both diehard hoops fans, and the contrast with the NBA when Daryl Morey sent an innocuous tweet about — stand For Hong Kong, stand for democracy — the Chinese communist government freaked out and the NBA groveled on their knees before the communist dictators.

Yet people like LeBron James are defending the communist dictators who engage in murder and torture and run concentration camps — and I have to say, Enes Kanter calling out LeBron James? I thought his shoes were hysterical, with LeBron bowing before the Chinese communist overlords.

And I’m grateful that Kanter is showing courage and the Women’s Tennis Association is showing courage, and I’ll tell you something. Right now, the Women’s Tennis Association has bigger balls than the NBA. And I would like to see courage be contagious and more people stand up.

BUCK: Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, sir, always appreciate you being with us.

CLAY: Well said.

BUCK: Thanks for making the time. We know you have a vote to tend to. We appreciate it.

SEN. CRUZ: Thank you, guys. Take care.

CLAY: That was Senator Ted Cruz.