Texas Sen. Ted Cruz: Joe Biden is 'inviting terrorists into this country'
After months of talk, the impeachment trial for Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas, started and ended in just a few hours earlier this month.
Senate Democrats voted to dismiss both articles of impeachment against Mayorkas.
The Republican-controlled House impeached Mayorkas by a single vote margin on Feb. 13, recommending that he be removed from office over his handling of the US-Mexico border.
Democrats said the charges against Mayorkas amounted to a policy dispute, not the "high crimes and misdemeanors" laid out as a bar for impeachment in the Constitution.
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Texas Senator Ted Cruz sat down with FOX 4's Steven Dial to talk about the dismissed impeachment and the current situation at the border.
Steven Dial: Republicans were unsuccessful in even having a trial for DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. What is your reaction to what unfolded?
Sen. Ted Cruz: What Chuck Schumer and every Senate Democrat did, they refused to have a trial. They refused to hear any evidence. They refused to let the House managers present their case. And the reason they did so, that was utterly unprecedented. They defied two centuries of precedent in the Senate. And the reason they did so is they are desperate to cover up the absolute disaster that is unfolding at our southern border. The Senate Democrats, they did not want a trial before the American people. They did not want evidence before the American people, because they cannot defend what Joe Biden and all of the Democrats have done at our southern border.
Dial: Which do you have a bigger beef with? Because I know you believe that Mayorkas committed a high crime and misdemeanor. I know you likely, and correct me if I'm wrong, would have voted to remove him from office.
Cruz: Yes.
Dial: Are you more concerned with the fact that there wasn't a trial? Or would you have felt this way regardless of how things should go?
Cruz: Listen, both on the substance. What is happening at our southern border is a crisis, and it is the single largest crisis facing the State of Texas right now. It's a humanitarian disaster. It's a public safety disaster. It's a national security disaster. Joe Biden and the Democrats are effectively inviting terrorists into this country. We have Iran that has demanded a global jihad in America with Hamas and Hezbollah, that have demanded global jihad on America. And the Democrats are inviting in any terrorist who want to murder Americans effectively to come across our southern border. And it is an enormous threat to public safety here in the state of Texas. What the Democrats did also is an enormous threat to the Constitution.
The Constitution gives the Senate the sole authority and the responsibility to conduct an impeachment trial. And Senate Democrats, every single one of them, without a word of dissent, voted, we will not fulfill our constitutional responsibility.
Dial: There's no secret there is an issue at the border, and more Democrats have been vocal even about the border. But do you genuinely believe that Democrats are saying terrorists and bad people come through? Do you genuinely believe that is an intentional act?
Cruz: Absolutely. I understand, talk is cheap. Do Democrats, particularly when they're on the campaign trail, do they occasionally say, gosh, we need to do something about the border? Sure, they say that. But then, over and over again, when they have a chance to vote on it and do something about it, they vote the other way. And so Democrats repeatedly vote in favor of the open borders. Just a few weeks ago, we forced a vote on the Senate floor. Very simple vote. It says we should deport illegal aliens who violently assault a police officer. Now, Steven, I got to say, if you talk to any ordinary Texan, that's an easy proposition. If an illegal alien violently assaults a police officer, of course you should deport him and send him home. Every single Senate Democrat voted no. Every one of them.