NBC "Meet the Press" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Ted Cruz

Interview

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CHUCK TODD:

And joining me now from Houston is Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Senator Cruz, welcome back to Meet the Press, sir.

SEN. TED CRUZ:

Chuck, always good to be with you.

CHUCK TODD:

Let me start with the fact that you're in Houston and not here. And you're not the only one. I'll have Senator Kaine on. He's coming to me from Richmond and not here. Why isn't the United States Senate here, sir?

SEN. TED CRUZ:

Well, it's very simple. I'm here over the weekend, as most senators go home to the state and come home during the weekend. I came back to Texas on Thursday to travel with the president to go down to the border. And so working down here, meeting with stakeholders on the border, meeting with Border Patrol agents, meeting with ICE officials, meeting with families who've had family members murdered by criminal, illegal aliens. And so I'm down here, doing my job. I'll be back in Washington on Monday. I hope on Monday, what we'll see is, finally, Washington coming together and opening up the government. What that's going to take is for the Democrats to move off the position that they've been taking so far of no compromise, no movement. Their extreme position, they've got to be willing to give in on.

CHUCK TODD:

Does the president, though, need to move? He hasn't moved at all, publicly. And it's not clear what, what the offers are, other than concrete to steel.

SEN. TED CRUZ:

Chuck, that's actually not accurate. The president has said, over and over again, I've been in the room when he's said it, that he's more than willing to compromise. He's more than willing to meet in the middle. The reason we have a shutdown is -- let's go back to December. In December, the then-Republican House passed funding for the entire federal government. It included $5.7 billion for an additional 234 miles of steel barrier. When it got to the Senate, Chuck Schumer and the Democrats filibustered that bill. Every Democrat said, "No. We will not allow the government to be funded, so long as they're building even a single mile of barrier." That's why we have a shutdown. And that's not a reasonable position. And the president's position has been, he's perfectly happy to negotiate, to compromise. He's said, many times, doesn't have to be $5.7 billion. He could find some other number. But the Democrats have said, "No." The only thing they're willing to consider is zero, zero, zero. That is not reasonable. And that's why we have a shutdown.

CHUCK TODD:

Senator, you yourself, I think, in 2017, was -- you were lamenting the fact that, here, you had all Republican control of the House, the Senate, and the White House. And things weren't moving very quickly. He didn't make his case for a wall. He didn't, he didn't plow the field over those two years to try to make this work. And he tried to jam it in at the last minute. Isn't this on the president, for his lack of being able to get Congressional Republicans to come together much earlier?

SEN. TED CRUZ:

You know, I don't think that's true at all. I don't think it's the president's fault that Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are being political. If you look at the two years we had Republican control of both houses, we saw incredible forward progress. We saw an historic tax cut. We're seeing booming economic results. We've got the lowest African American unemployment that has ever been recorded, the lowest Hispanic unemployment that's ever been recorded.

CHUCK TODD:

But my question was about the immigration issue.

SEN. TED CRUZ:

And in fact --

CHUCK TODD:

He didn't --

SEN. TED CRUZ:

All right let's take it --

CHUCK TODD:

He didn't do anything to try to actually get Republicans united on this. And he jammed it through at the last minute.

SEN. TED CRUZ:

Well, but that's not actually right. You remember the fairly remarkable Oval Office meeting between Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and the president. And Nancy Pelosi said then, she said, "Mr. President, you can't pass this in the House." She basically said, "I dare you. You don't have the votes." He said, "Yes, I do." And she said, "No, you don't. I dare you." So he turned around. He took it to the House, which was Republican. And they passed it. And Chuck, here's the ridiculous thing about the position of Senate Democrats. This is not substantive. They voted for it before. Chuck Schumer and every single Democrat in the Senate, in 2013, voted for 350 miles of additional border fencing and border security. They've now shut the government down on 234 miles. And so I think an awful lot of people are asking, "Well, if you voted for 350 miles, why would you force a shutdown on 234?" That is not reasonable. And the president remains willing to come together and compromise. But so far, the Democrats don't want to do that.

CHUCK TODD:

Why not open up the government and just -- and move the Homeland Security debate to the side and debate that, while you pay government workers?

SEN. TED CRUZ:

Well, the House passed a bill opening the government, funding all of the government, and securing the border. And the Democrats' position can't be, "We've got to force a shutdown." We're going to hold -- what the Democrats are saying is, "We're going to hold federal workers hostage." And you know, you've got my friend, Tim Kaine coming on in a minute. He represents Virginia. There are a lot of federal workers in the Commonwealth of Virginia. If Tim Kaine and Mark Warner were to say, "We're going to put the jobs of the men and women of Virginia ahead of our partisan interests, ahead of the fact that our base hates Donald Trump." Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, it would take only five more Democrats in the Senate to have the votes to say, "This second Schumer shutdown is over. We're reopening the government. And we're going to implement common-sense border security that the American people want."

CHUCK TODD:

And I think they would say the same thing about you and your fellow Republicans and the political base. I think that's why we're in this stalemate. I want to move to another topic here. Let me ask you this --

SEN. TED CRUZ:

But hold on a second --

CHUCK TODD:

I gotta, I gotta move --

SEN. TED CRUZ:

Let me say something on that point, Chuck. There is a difference between one side, the Democrats, who are saying, "We will not move. We will not compromise. We will not negotiate," and the other side, the president, who is saying, "I'm happy to negotiate." And what he's proposing, the Democrats have already voted for. They're playing politics, because they hate Trump. And that's not a good enough reason for Chuck Schumer and the Democrats to shut down the government.

CHUCK TODD:

Let me ask you this. The New York Times reported, on Friday night, that the FBI, after the Comey firing, because of what the president said, both in a letter to Mr. Comey and to my colleague, Lester Holt, they opened up a counterintelligence investigation, concerned that a sitting president was working on behalf of a foreign agent. How much of a concern is this to you?

SEN. TED CRUZ:

Well, I don't know the details or the specifics there. I know what was reported publicly in the media. And I sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, so we will consider any allegations that come forward. But I'll tell you, Chuck, something that is really interesting. You and I work in Washington, but I also come back to Texas. Just about every week, I'm back, outside the Beltway. There is an incredible divide between Washington and the rest of the country, when it comes to Bob Mueller and the Russia investigation. The mainstream media, Washington is obsessed with it. And when you get outside the Beltway, I don't find anybody concerned with this at all. They're concerned with jobs, lower taxes, higher wages, more opportunity. They're concerned with securing the border. So the questions I get are not about the latest obsession and allegations about Russia, Russia, Russia. They're about, "Hey, when are we actually going to secure the border? When are we going to keep making this country safer?" So that's going to stay my focus. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, I'll consider whatever evidence is produced. But I'm not going to base it on unsubstantiated media reports.

CHUCK TODD:

How about, on the Foreign Relations Committee, the Washington Post is reporting that the president, basically, is not sharing what he discusses with Vladimir Putin behind closed doors? Do you think you guys in the Senate ought to, for instance, subpoena a translator, so that you have a real readout of what the president and Vladimir Putin are saying to each other?

SEN. TED CRUZ:

You know, I think it's premature for that. I've seen the allegations. I want to find out a little bit more about what happened there. I want to learn more than just the allegations in the press. Listen, I will say, if you compare, objectively, President Trump's policies to Russia, compared to President Obama's policies to Russia, by any measure, President Obama was much easier, was much more gentle, on Russia. You and I both recall Obama leaning over on a hot mic and saying, just before the 2012 election, "Tell Vladimir I'll have a lot more flexibility after the election." Now, there, they weren't keeping notes. It just happened to be a network had a camera going. If you compare substance, for example, Trump went to NATO and urged the Europeans, "Don't let the Russians build a pipeline through Europe." You want to talk about what actually makes a difference, standing up to Russia? That, on policy, was far, far more important than much of the weakness and appeasement we saw under Obama.

CHUCK TODD:

And finally, before I let you go, I want to get you to comment on your colleague, Tim Scott's, op-ed in the Washington Post about Steve King, Iowa congressman, who is your national co-chair for president. He said, he writes this, "Some in our party wonder why Republicans are constantly accused of racism. Well, it is because of our silence when things like this are said. King's comments are not conservative views but separate views that should be ridiculed at every turn possible." He questioned, in a New York Times interview, why we find phrases like white nationalism to somehow be offensive. Where are you on this, sir?

SEN. TED CRUZ:

Well, listen. Tim is a good man and a good friend. He and I have worked together on many, many issues. What Steve King said was stupid. It was stupid. It was hurtful. It was wrong. And he needs to stop. I think all of us ought to be united, regardless of party, in saying, white supremacism, white nationalism, is hatred. It is bigotry. It is evil. It is wrong. And I think we need that clarity. And I'm certainly going to urge everyone to provide that clarity.

CHUCK TODD:

Are you going to support him in the future?

SEN. TED CRUZ:

You know, what I'm going to do is urge everyone to stand for principles that matter. You know, this same weekend, in Texas, there was a movement, from some activists, that asked to remove a local official in Fort Worth, who was a Muslim. I spoke out actively, because it was my home state, I spoke actively against that. I said, "Listen, we believe in religious freedom. We believe in free speech. We believe in diversity." And ultimately, the voters in the Tarrant County GOP did the right thing. They didn't remove that official. So I'm going to speak out and engage. And when it comes to speaking out against bigotry, whether it is the Klan or Nazis or anything else, I have a lifetime of standing up to that bigotry. And I'll continue it.

CHUCK TODD:

Senator Cruz, Republican from Texas, appreciate you coming on and sharing your views this morning. Thank you, sir.

SEN. TED CRUZ:

Thank you, Chuck.

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