Cruz Called Trump S Allegations Of Fraud Reckless. Now He S Promising His Own Evidence.

Comment Among the many Republicans who followed Donald Trump’s claims of voter fraud after the 2020 election, perhaps none fared better than Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.). He offered to support Trump’s case before the Supreme Court and even spearheaded the ill-fated challenge to the election results during the congressional certification of Biden’s victory that preceded the January 6 uprising. All the while, however, Cruz — like many — avoided going into detail about the actual facts of the alleged fraud. Instead, he framed his effort in a style that simply begs questions that fuel unfounded suspicions while allowing for some plausible deniability. And when the whole thing broke on Jan. 6, Cruz exercised that denial: He called Trump’s allegations of voter fraud “reckless” and “irresponsible” and “way out of line” — even as he offered to support the case of Trump — and even said that Trump “clearly bears some responsibility” because of his “angry rhetoric.” Cruz, like nearly everyone in his party who dared to criticize Trump after that infamous day, has since backed away from that stance. And now he’s out with a book this week that he bills as “the first insider account of what happened on January 6.” Among the book’s central points, according to Cruz’s Fox News interview Sunday night? “I’m looking at them on the evidence of voter fraud and voter fraud in November 2020 that Democrats and the corporate media insist doesn’t exist,” Cruz said. The resulting text should be highly telling – both when it comes to the lack of real evidence and how incredibly convenient Cruz and the GOP are after January. 6 conversion. To be clear, despite his intense criticism of Trump after January 6, Cruz continued to cling to the idea that significant voter fraud occurred, even if Trump’s specific claims were false. And it is at least theoretically possible that it could provide a sober review of the evidence, such as it is. Far more likely, it seems, is that Cruz will provide enough smoke to attract many Republicans who continue to harbor unfounded doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 election. That’s the price of relevance in today’s GOP, and Cruz has shown that he is more than willing to pay for it. When Cruz rallied nearly a dozen GOP senators to challenge the election results on Jan. 6, the wording of their statement was extremely careful. He made no mention of actual evidence of fraud; instead he mentioned the claims and perception for that and the need to reassure people. It referred to “unprecedented allegations of voter fraud”. He added that “allegations of fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election span all of our lives.” He even cited a poll that showed 39 percent of Americans believed the election was rigged. Cruz echoed those arguments in his comments on the floor just before the uprising. Of course, such claims, perceptions and beliefs flourished in large part because almost no one in Trump’s party would say before January 6 what Cruz eventually said next: That it was “reckless” and “irresponsible” for Trump to claim that the elections were “stolen everywhere” and that there was “massive fraud”. Instead of correcting him, his party simply offered disparaging comments about alleged “irregularities” and state election procedures. If we’re being charitable, Cruise and his colleagues may have thought this effort was doomed and didn’t see “the downside of humoring him for that short time.” They shouldn’t have said what Trump said. they just wouldn’t argue with him. And soon he would be gone. This turned into a fatal decision — fatal to the republic and almost fatal to them personally. And for a brief period after Jan. 6, Cruz and his fellow Republicans seemed to believe that this might be their chance to outdo Trump — or even that he had to pass by him. They could finally call it what it was. Then things changed. Kevin McCarthy made a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to atone for his sin of blaming Trump for January 6th. Soon, Republicans were making a fuss on Jan. 6 about nothing — even firing Liz Cheney as House leader for having the audacity to keep pushing the issue. Cruz actually lasted longer than some. For months after January 6th, even though some in the conservative movement questioned whether it was a riot (it was), he actually went one step further and repeatedly called it a “terrorist” attack. But then Tucker Carlson called him out. On the Jan. 6 anniversary, Cruz appeared on Carlson’s show to take his medicine and assure that he would no longer call it a terrorist attack. And if you want a preview of what you’re likely to read with Cruz’s “evidence” of voter fraud, look no further than what he said Sunday night. “So if you’re at home and you’re talking to people about January 6th, the left is using wildly politicized terms like ‘riot,’ which is total political garbage,” Cruz said. “Anyone who uses that word is engaging in partisan spin.” The guy who repeatedly called it a terrorist attack is now policing other people’s language. And the guy who called Trump’s claims “reckless” and “irresponsible” will now file his own evidence of voter fraud — all, apparently, in service of bolstering his efforts to contest the results of the 2020 election, even and when the Jan. 6 riot meant (as Cruz said in Sunday’s interview) that “some senators were swaying.” It seems unlikely that these allegations will go as far as Trump has. Cruz probably won’t delve into theories about voting machines and Antrim County, Mich. But the fact that he’s promoting his book in these terms speaks volumes for the GOP’s commitment to looking like loyal soldiers in this reckless crusade.