Yahoo News Ted Cruz Says It’s ‘Ridiculous’ To Ask If He’ll Accept Results Of The 2024 Election
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) repeatedly refused to say if he would accept the results of the 2024 presidential election regardless of who won in a heated interview Wednesday night on CNN.
Host Kaitlan Collins asked Cruz — the first senator to object to the certification of the Electoral College votes in the 2020 election — if he planned to do so once more after President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are expected to face off in November. Cruz, who is up for reelection in November, took umbrage with the question before dredging up disproven conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud.
My full exchange with Sen. Ted Cruz, who was the first senator to object in 2020, on whether he'll accept the election results in 2024: pic.twitter.com/nMuHv26Pzk
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) May 23, 2024
Collins: In 2024, will you certify the election results, do you plan to object, or will you accept the results regardless of who wins the election?
Cruz: So Kaitlan, I’ve gotta say I think that’s actually a ridiculous question.
Collins: It’s a yes-or-no question.
Cruz: No, it’s not. Let me explain why it’s a ridiculous question: Have you ever asked a Democrat that?
Collins: Of course.
Collins went on to challenge Cruz’s claim that Democrats, too, had voiced opposition to Trump’s ascension in 2016 when he defeated Hillary Clinton, saying the lawmaker couldn’t compare the two situations.
“We did have a peaceful transfer of power,” Cruz replied. “I was there on Jan 20. I was there on the swearing-in.”
“Barely,” Collins said. “What happened in 2016? Because I remember a guy named Joe Biden was vice president and he went to the Senate floor and certified the votes.”
Cruz did not mention the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol where supporters of then-President Trump stormed the halls of Congress in an attempt to stop the certification of the Electoral College results. And he refused to accept Collins’ remarks that Trump attempted to hold on to power and even denied Biden access to intelligence briefings when he was declared president-elect.
Trump’s efforts to remain in power are the subject of two criminal indictments: A federal case in Washington, D.C., and another in Georgia over his alleged attempts to reverse his election loss there in 2020.
Cruz went on to say that he still believed there was “significant” voter fraud in 2020 and asked Collins to provide evidence to the contrary.
She pointed to three hand counts of votes in Georgia that verified the outcome and remarks from the head of election integrity in the United States that found the 2020 race “the most secure in American history.”
“Republicans have twisted themselves in knots, it’s just a yes-or-no question,” Collins said later.
“I’m not twisting myself,” Cruz said. “I’m answering your question. You just don’t like my answer.”
“So what’s your answer, is it yes or is it no,” Collins went on.
Cruz didn’t reply.
