Ted Cruz Doubles Down in Mitch McConnell 'Attack'

 The United States Senate was open for a rare Sunday session in which Senator Ted Cruz continued his battle against the Republican establishment and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The Friday session revealed that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell lied to GOP Senators about legislation and blocked  GOP Senator's input into legislation by filling the amendment tree, among other things. The Friday session was covered in a previous blog.
Ted Cruz Accuses Mitch McConnell of Telling a 'Flat-out Lie'

First, from Politico:

Republican leaders delivered a smackdown of Sens. Ted Cruz and Mike Lee on the Senate floor Sunday — the latest in an increasingly testy rivalry marked by accusations of deceit and grandstanding. 

The showdown was triggered by an attempt by Cruz (R-Texas) and Lee (R-Utah) to employ arcane Senate procedures to take a tougher stand on Iran and to defund Planned Parenthood. Republican leaders led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) viewed the move as an affront to Senate rules and squelched the effort in dramatic fashion — an embarrassing setback for two of the chamber’s most conservative members.

First Cruz tried unsuccessfully to force the Senate to consider an amendment to a transportation bill stating that sanctions on Iran could not be lifted until the country recognizes Israel’s right to exist and frees four American hostages. But he was unable to rally enough senators to back his effort to get a roll call vote on the matter.
Then Lee tried to push through a vote on defunding Planned Parenthood. That, too, failed to muster enough support for a vote. On Monday, Lee is expected to try to repeal Obamacare with a simple majority vote of 51 senators, effectively circumventing the 60-vote requirement to break a filibuster after Democrats defeated an attempt to repeal the health care law on Sunday.

Now the Sunday Senate action as reported at TheHill.com
Cruz doubles down in McConnell attack

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) doubled-down Sunday in his attacks on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 

Cruz on Friday accused McConnell of lying to him about whether he had agreed to allow Democrats a vote on extending the Export-Import Bank during negotiations earlier this summer on trade legislation.

On Sunday, he repeated the charge — which McConnell and his allies have criticized. 

“On Friday I gave an unusual speech, a speech unlike any I have given in this chamber. It was not a speech I was happy to give,” said Cruz, a Republican presidential candidate. “I described an explicit promise the majority leader had made to me and to all 53 Republican senators.” 

He said that McConnell made a promise “in front of every Republican senator” while “looking me in the eyes [that] there was no deal on the Export-Import Bank.” 

“We saw on Friday that promise was false," Cruz said. "That promise was made and that promise was broken.” 

Cruz said that McConnell took steps to “force a vote to reauthorize the Export-Import bank and they were directly contrary to the promises the majority leader made to all 53 Republicans.” 

“My saying so [on Friday] may be uncomfortable but it is a simple fact,” Cruz said.
He also responded to critics. 

Ted Cruz on the Senate Floor, Sunday July 26, 2015 

“I would note that it is entirely consistent with decorum and with the nature of this body traditionally as the world's greatest deliberative body, to speak the truth,” Cruz said. “Speaking the truth about actions is entirely consistent with civility.” 

Asked if he went to far during his Friday speech, Cruz instead blasted the press for not writing about whether or not McConnell lied about a deal. 

"I would note that on the discussion of my speech on Friday, there have been no stories written about whether in fact of Mitch McConnell told the truth," he said. "None of you have written the story about whether as to whether he told the truth or lied, the substantive story."

Senate Rs teamed up w/Senate Ds to revive an FDR New Deal corporate welfare program. And they expect conservative voters to trust our party?

— Justin Amash (@justinamash) July 26, 2015

Senator Ted Cruz Accuses Sen. Mitch McConnell of Telling a 'Flat-out Lie'

'Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) criticizes Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) for filing an amendment to the highway funding bill to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank and preventing senators from offering additional amendments by filling the amendment tree. He calls Senator McConnell's actions "procedural abuse" and compares his tactics to those of now-Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) when he was majority leader.' (Caitlyn Hillyard) 

Excerpt from Politico
Ted Cruz Accuses Mitch McConnell of Telling a 'Flat-out Lie'
During his speech, the Texas senator also strongly rebuked the GOP Senate majority’s record this Congress

Ted Cruz took to the Senate floor Friday and charged that Mitch McConnell told a “lie,” escalating his campaign against GOP leaders and challenging the traditions of the usually decorous chamber. 

In a scathing floor speech, the Texas firebrand accused the Senate majority leader of breaking his word to him and the rest of the GOP conference over McConnell’s plans for the controversial Export-Import Bank, the country’s chief export credit agency. In Cruz’s telling, McConnell privately promised him and other Republicans that “there was no deal” with a handful of senators who were seeking to revive the bank in exchange for their votes to advance a major trade bill in May.

McConnell, he said, became “visibly angry” when Cruz challenged him on the matter during a meeting in May. 

“Like St. Peter,” Cruz said, “he repeated it three times. He said, ‘The only thing I told the proponents of the Export-Import Bank is like any other senator in this body, they could offer any amendment they liked on an any amendable vehicle, but I gave them nothing.’”
That day in late May, Cruz said his staff informed him that McConnell was “lying” to him, but he said he believed the Senate GOP leader that “he wasn’t lying to us.”

But after McConnell took procedural steps Friday to move to a proposal to revive the Ex-Im bank, Cruz said on the Senate floor: “I cannot believe he would tell a flat-out lie.”

What we saw today was an absolute demonstration that not only what he told every Republican senator, but what he told the press over and over again was a simple lie,” said Cruz, a fierce opponent of the bank. “The majority and minority leader, arm-in-arm again, should not team up against the American taxpayers.”

The attack is unusual even for Cruz, who has made his battle with Senate Republicans a centerpiece of his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination. Senators tend to avoid directly calling out specific senators on the Senate floor — particularly from their own party and especially their own party leader. Senate rules say, “no senator in debate shall, directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another senator or to other senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a senator.” 

Asked to comment, McConnell smiled and walked away. Sen. John Cornyn, a fellow Texas Republican and McConnell’s chief deputy, said he was reviewing Cruz’s remarks and would not comment further.

Read More at Politico: 

Just Another Week for Senator Ted Cruz in the Media

The Democrat party and it's ally the mainstream media have long smeared and attacked Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Any mention of Tea Party support by a conservative candidate will get them on the leftist and BIG government supporter's target list. This last week was no exception.  The AP misquotes Senator Cruz and the Pavlovian response from the left was predictable.

Ted Cruz quotes ‘pro-choice’ jerks accurately, is falsely accused of calling them Satan worshippers

The Associated Press caught a lot of grief for their bias and ran a mostly unnoticed correction.

Correction: Republicans-Abortion story

WASHINGTON (AP) — In some versions of a story March 12 about possible Republican presidential contenders talking about abortion, The Associated Press reported erroneously that they called abortion rights activists Satan worshippers. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said abortion rights activists had chanted "Hail, Satan," referencing a rally last year in Austin, Texas.

A corrected version of the story is below:

Anti-abortion voters look for one of their own
Activists look for candidate who is as anti-abortion as they are, hear from Cruz, Huckabee

By PHILIP ELLIOTT
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Invoking fiery references to Satan, "savagery" and a "culture of death" to criticize their opponents, anti-abortion lawmakers on Wednesday insisted that Republican contenders keep an intense focus on social issues in the upcoming midterm elections and the 2016 presidential race.

Like many abortion opponents, the Susan B. Anthony List is in search of a White House contender who won't shy from social issues after back-to-back presidential nominees in 2008 and 2012 who focused their campaigns on the economy and came up short. Several potential 2016 candidates were making their pitches in blunt terms, urging the group members to stick to their principles and fight those who would stand in their way.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said those who support abortion rights favor a "culture of death" and engage in "savagery."

Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican who is a favorite of the tea party, reminded the crowd of activists that supporters of abortion rights chanted "Hail, Satan" to silence their enemies during a heated protest at the Texas Capitol

The week ends for Senator Ted Cruz with a puzzling media campaign in Hollywood.

The Senator tweets this classic response:

Harry Reid calls Sen. Ted Cruz a ‘schoolyard bully’- Video

 Reid calls Sen. Cruz a ‘schoolyard bully’

 By Erik Wasson

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called freshman GOP Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) a “schoolyard bully” during a contentious exchange Monday on the Senate floor.
The two senators bickered as Cruz rose to object to Reid’s motion to appoint conferees to a House-Senate budget committee. Cruz said he was concerned that the conference report—which cannot be filibustered—would be used to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. He asked that Reid amend his motion to go to conference to make out of order any provisions raising taxes or raising the debt ceiling. Reid said Cruz had a chance to amend the Senate budget—which raises $975 billion in new tax revenue from tax reform—when it was considered on the floor.
He said Cruz’s request to eliminate all taxes in a final House-Senate budget was absurd.
“The senator from Texas was on the losing side…now he wants us to adopt the losing side’s view or we cannot go to conference,” Reid said.
“My friend from Texas is like a schoolyard bully,” Reid added.

"He pushes everybody around and is losing and instead of playing the game according to the rules, he not only takes the ball home with him, but he changes the rules that way no one wins except the bully who tries to indicate to people that he has won."
Cruz, a Tea Party darling whose rhetoric has sometimes raised eyebrows among Republicans, shot back that “I wasn’t aware we are in the schoolyard.”
Reid cut him off saying “enough.”
Cruz is a rising GOP star whose speaking engagements have some thinking he is plotting a presidential run in 2016.
This is the second time Republicans have blocked an effort to go to conference on the budget.

Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) last month objected to a conference on behalf of Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), the ranking member of the Budget Committee.
“Why are my Republican colleagues so afraid?” Reid asked Monday in making his request. “We have our differences but Democrats aren’t afraid to work out those differences.”
Reid accused the GOP of “whining” about the Senate not producing a budget for four years and then refusing to bring about a conference.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said that he wants a framework agreement before convening a conference committee. Such a framework could facilitate a down payment on the debt, he said.

Ramsey Cox contributed to this story.

Harry Reid on Raising the Budgets and the  Debt Ceiling 2006

Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid- The Obstructionist