Fox News "The Ingraham Angle" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Ted Cruz

Interview

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INGRAHAM: Here now is Texas Senator Ted Cruz. Senator, your reaction to this?

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Look, the Biden administration has gone extreme and hard left. And if you look at priorities, there's a hierarchy of priorities with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. At the very bottom of the list is your freedom, is your freedom to choose whether or not to get a vaccine, your freedom to choose what to do with your life. Down at the bottom of the priority list for the Biden administration is your right to go to work, to have a job, your right to send your kids to school. Above that they put the virus in fighting the pandemic. They put that in the next level.

So they view COVID is more important than your right to go to work or send your kids to school. But above that in their priority list is their desire to have open borders. And so, they're willing to impose all of these mandates on American citizens and at the same time at our southern border, they are releasing hundreds of thousands of people. We're on pace to have over 2 million people cross our border illegally this year.

And what does the Biden administration want to do? It wants to repeal the laws that have enabled us to keep out people who are COVID positive, even though that is driving up the rates of COVID infections. And this is radical, open border policy that doesn't make any sense and that is endangering American health.

INGRAHAM: Now, Senator, I have to ask you about this issue we talked about at the top of the show, which is this lurch toward COVID mandates in states across the country. Kris Kobach addressed the constitutional issue. Given your background, I'd love to hear what you have to say about what we're looking at here, which is not maybe people not being able to fly, people not being able to check into hotels, go to work and so forth.

CRUZ: So I think it's real simple. There should be no mandates. There should be no vaccine mandates, there should be no mask mandates. We should respect individual liberty. Now when it comes to vaccines, I believe in vaccines. So I've been vaccinated, Heidi has been vaccinated, my parents have been vaccinated, Heidi's parents have been vaccinated. I am encouraging Texans and Americans to get vaccinated, particularly if you're elderly, particularly if you're at a high risk category, I think taking the vaccine makes sense.

But I also believe in individual liberty and responsibility. I think you're able to make that decision for yourself. You're able to look at the cost- benefit analysis and to make a choice about whether getting vaccinated is a good idea. I think for schoolchildren, I can tell you Heidi and I, we haven't vaccinated our girls. The cost-benefit analysis is different for kids.

The rate of serious COVID infections for children is so low that trying a new vaccine for us doesn't make sense. Other parents may make different decisions.

But the left doesn't believe in individual responsibility. They don't believe in individual choice. They want the government to mandate, you must obey. So I've introduced legislation in the Senate to ban vaccine passports, to ban the government saying we are going to issue a document to make sure you've had a vaccine. I've introduced legislation to end the mask mandate on airplanes. It is crazy right now that airplanes are mandating mask mandates. It doesn't make any sense. And Democrats are opposing this because they believe you don't have a right to make a choice for yourself.

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: People are called anti-vaccine when they are really anti-mandate, correct?

CRUZ: Yes.

INGRAHAM: That is the real trick. You are antigovernment control because we think it leads to perhaps the next lockdown or the next mandate, the climate change mandate, or the racial justice mandate, or whatever the next mandate it, because you start and people start bowing down to it.

CRUZ: I'll tell you something from inside the Senate. So on the question of masks, I've never been on the extreme on either side, so I've never understood the people that want masks at all times no matter what. And I've, frankly, never been with the people that say never wear a mask no matter what. Particularly early on in the pandemic, it was a dangerous disease, I was willing to take a reasonable step to slow the spread of the disease.

But I'll tell you, when I got vaccinated, once I was vaccinated, I stopped wearing my mask on the Senate floor. There were just three of us, three senators out of 100, we'd all been vaccinated, who were not wearing a mask. There was Rand Paul, there was me, and there was Roger Marshall. And I've got to tell you, people looked at you like you had three heads when you walked on with no mask. And I said, I believe in science. Vaccines work. And then suddenly, magically, when Joe Biden was under some real political pressure, the CDC changed their recommendation and said OK, vaccinated people don't have to wear masks.

INGRAHAM: Now they're going back again. They might be going back.

CRUZ: Everyone took off their masks. And now they are going back. And by the way, if you want to encourage people to get vaccinated, this idea of the left, you're getting people now saying even if you're vaccinated you've got to wear a mask. That is idiotic. My answer to that is no, no, no, hell no. And if you want to encourage people to get vaccinated, if you suggest nothing in your life will change, we are going to lock you in your bedroom forever even if you're vaccinated, people aren't going to choose to do so. I don't think that makes any sense, and it's the result of people that are frankly, they believe in government power and they don't care about your individual freedom.

INGRAHAM: Yes, it's about control, and Senator, you stated it very eloquently. Thank you so much, good to see you tonight.

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