Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sunday accused President Joe Biden of “behaving like a terrorist” in the fight over the debt ceiling as the prospect of default this summer looms large over Washington.
During an interview on Fox News, Cruz encouraged Biden to rethink his opposition to the legislation narrowly passed last week by the GOP-led House that would suspend the debt ceiling through March 31, 2024, or until an increase in debt of $1.5 trillion — whichever comes first — in exchange for a host of spending cuts.
“I’ve got some advice for Joe Biden on the debt ceiling, someone he should listen to. President Biden should listen to Joe Biden. Joe Biden in 2011 was the vice president,” Cruz said on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
Ted Cruz on Fox News accuses Joe Biden of behaving like a "terrorist" because he won't negotiate with Kevin McCarthy over the debt ceiling pic.twitter.com/K0xzCrJGDe
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“Republicans had taken the House. Republicans held a hard line on the debt ceiling,” Cruz recalled. “And Joe Biden, then-vice president, went and personally negotiated the deal that became the Budget Control Act, a bill that was designed to cut over $2 trillion in our debt. It was the most significant fiscal restraint ever passed in modern times.”
Cruz said then-President Barack Obama did not engage in “this kind of irresponsible fear-mongering” that the senator argued is on display now and noted that Obama then sent Biden to Congress to negotiate a deal.
“That Joe Biden from 2011 needs to come back, not the guy they got right now locked in the basement and a White House that’s being run by 25-year-old radicals who figure, ‘Heck, just let it all default. What do we care?'” Cruz said.
“These are little Marxists with no experience in the real world. We need to bring back the Joe Biden who’s done this before. Not the one who is behaving like a terrorist, which is what Biden is doing right now,” he added.
Biden and his fellow Democrats, who control the Senate, insist on a “clean” debt ceiling bill separate from spending cuts or policy concessions. The president has ratcheted up the rhetoric during the standoff, accusing Republicans of espousing “wacko notions.”
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Cruz acknowledged the upper chamber, led by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), likely would not consider the House bill, but he urged Senate Republicans to put aside any differences and rally behind the House GOP proposal.
“Listen, at some level, unfortunately, Senate Republicans are never united. There are 49 Senate Republicans and 52 points of view. That’s just the nature of the Senate,” Cruz said.
“That being said, I think what we ought to be doing in the Senate is, we ought to be standing up and backing up the House Republicans,” he added. “The House Republicans are showing leadership right now. And Senate Republicans should stand shoulder to shoulder with the House and say: ‘Joe Biden, come to the table.'”