Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript Interview with Ted Cruz

Interview

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Joining us now with reaction, author of -- and it's just out this week, it's on Amazon, bookstores everywhere, it's a must read -- "One Vote Away", Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

I've had a few battles with Cuban. I actually like the guy, I want his team to do well, I want the NBA to do well.

I think the more -- if I had my way, I think players that are admired by so many, if they would actually join with members of the community and invite people into do positive things, keep schools safer, make sure kids get an education -- I'd jump on board. I think most fans would.

But I think when you make a political statement without backing it up with actions, I don't think it's helpful.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Look, I totally agree. I mean, I love watching NBA.

I'm a diehard Houston Rockets fan. I've been since I was a little kid.

And I think it's painful watching what the NBA, what they're doing right now, because they've essentially decided that half their fans are idiots and racists, and they're just going to insult them and they're going to lecture them.

And when you watch an NBA game now, it's just -- the announcers are engaged in political tirades the whole time. And as the article on Sean Hannity.com said, the first three games of the NBA finals are the three lowest watched NBA finals games in history and half the fans are saying, all right, if you're going to insult me, to heck with you, I'm going to go do something else.

You know, if the NBA wanted to do something really positive, to make a difference in the African-American community. Rather than supporting a Marxist organization like Black Lives Matter that's trying to abolish police departments, which endangers black communities, it would be great to see NBA coaches and players raising money for school choice, for scholarships, for low income African-American kids, Hispanic kids, that could make a real difference.

But that doesn't fit with their social justice agenda, sadly.

HANNITY: Let's talk about 28 days from tonight, four weeks from tonight, and that his election night and how do you see this race? A lot of important Senate races. You got Joni Ernst up for reelection, Cory Gardner, Martha McSally. You got Perdue in Georgia.

We'e following, you know, very closely, North Carolina and Tillis. You got Mitch McConnell up. I'm sure I'm missing one or two, but Alabama is an important race.

How do you see everything and how do you see the presidential race? Because I don't see Joe Biden ever having to answer a single tough question the whole time.

CRUZ: Well, the press is fully all-in in support of Biden.

I'm worried about the election. I think it's really volatile. I think it could go either way. I think we can have a fantastic election, the president could win by a big margin and we could win both houses of Congress. But I also think it could be devastating.

And I think we either win the presidency and win the Senate, or we lose the presidency and lose the Senate, and I very much hope it's the former and not the latter.

And it depends on turnout. It depends on who shows up. That's one of the reasons I think the confirmation battle over Judge Barrett is so important.

We're going to confirm Judge Barrett. We're going to do it by the end of the month. The Democrats are losing their mind and I think that's going to be really important.

It's also, as you know, one of the reasons why I wrote the new book "One Vote Away" to really highlight how the Supreme Court is on the ballot, how free speech is on the ballot, how religious liberty is on the ballot, how the Second Amendment is on the ballot, how school choices on the ballot -- that all of those were one vote away from a left-wing justice taking away our fundamental rights and I think the confirmation battle will really underscore that.

HANNITY: I think it's important -- you know, people ask me how the time, what do you think, who's going to win? And my answer is the same.

I think this -- it's very hard for a Republican to win the presidency, because you start out without California, Oregon, Washington, New Jersey, New York, and Illinois. It's a lot of electoral votes.

Then you've got to win Florida, Ohio, Georgia, you got to win North Carolina. You got hold Iowa, Arizona. You've got to fight for Nevada, new Mexico. Then you've got to get Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota. You got to fight for Nebraska congressional district too, Maine too, and New Hampshire.

It is -- it is always hard for a Republican to win and I don't trust all these new laws that are going on the books seemingly every day and every state extending out, you know, how many days they'll count the vote.

CRUZ: There are a lot of Democrats trying to steal the election. You know, there are two kinds of election, a turnout election and the persuasion election. I don't think this is a persuasion election. I think there are very few in the middle. There are not a lot of undecided.

The left is showing up. They're pissed off. They hate Trump. We've got to make sure everyone else shows up.

Let me say finally, Sean, thank you for having me on your show, and your radio show. It made the book "One Vote Away" number one on Amazon and you are encouraging people to buy it played a big, big role in that.

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