Ted Cruz doesn't appreciate reminders that he said COVID would end with election
He says he ‘underestimated’ the officials trying to keep people safe from the virus.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) admitted on Tuesday that he had been wrong to “guarantee” that Democratic officials would immediately reopen all businesses after the election if Joe Biden won.
“Twitter Left is aghast—seems the media/commie list-serve activated them all,” he tweeted, referencing a now-viral video of his own July interview. “Two observations: (1) Biden has *still* not been sworn in & (2) perhaps I underestimated the vicious authoritarianism of today’s Left—so willing to destroy restaurants, bars, small businesses, lives….”
The video, posted on Sunday by a Twitter account called “Bad COVID-19 Takes,” shows Cruz telling the Hill exactly four months earlier that Democratic mayors and governors were only restricting businesses and schools during the pandemic as part of a “cynical” political ploy to defeat Donald Trump. It has racked up more than 5.5 million views.
“If it ends up that Biden wins in November — I hope he doesn’t, I don’t think he will, but if he does — I guarantee you the week after the election, suddenly all those Democratic governors and Democratic mayors will say, ‘Everything’s magically better. Go back to work. Go back to school. Suddenly the problems are solved.'” Cruz promised. “You won’t even have to wait for Biden to be sworn in.”
Trump also spent much of the 2020 campaign making similar conspiracy claims — simultaneously saying Democrats would implement “draconian” lockdowns and immediately lift all restrictions after the election.
Since the earliest days of the pandemic, Cruz has been a strong opponent of social distancing measures to curb the coronavirus’ spread. As early as April 15, he was already claiming it was time to immediately “reopen the economy.”
“[T]he consequences of this economic shutdown are serious and dire,” he wrote. “Millions of small businesses, restaurants and bars and bowling alleys and movie theaters and oilfield services companies all facing potentially going out of business.”
Texas indeed rushed to reopen and, unsurprisingly, quickly saw surges in COVID-19 cases. The virus spread uncontrolled and Texas became the first state with more than 1 million cases earlier this month. More than 21,000 of Cruz’s constituents have died after becoming infected.
It has now been three weeks since President-elect Biden defeated Trump by a wide margin, in both the popular vote and Electoral College count.
With record numbers of new cases across the country and hospitals at or near full capacity, even some Republican governors have tightened restrictions in recent days.
No Democratic governor or mayor has declared the crisis “magically better.”
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
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