Cruz Demands McConnell Step Down as Leader of Senate GOP

[Photo Credit: By Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America - Ted Cruz, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=121256139]

Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) condemned Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) for allegedly mismanaging a financing package for border security and Ukraine.

Cruz cited McConnell’s alleged mismanagement as the reason for his resignation as Senate Republican leader.

Long a critic of McConnell’s leadership, Cruz was one of ten Republican senators who voted against his reelection as Senate minority leader following the 2022 election.

Although Cruz has expressed a longstanding intention to challenge McConnell’s leadership, he has intensified his criticism of the veteran Kentucky lawmaker in anticipation that the border security agreement negotiated by McConnell’s apologist, Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), would fail to garner support from Republican senators.

When asked if Cruz believed it was time for McConnell to go, Cruz said ” I think it is.”

“Everyone here also supported to the leadership challenge to Mitch McConnell in November [2022,]” he continued.

“I think a Republican leader should actually lead this conference and should advance the priorities of Republicans,” he added.

Cruz stated earlier on Tuesday that he exhorted Senate Republicans to elect a new leader following the 2022 election, following the Republicans’ defeat in the Pennsylvania Senate race and reduction of their minority to 49 seats.

Cruz argues that in order to reform the nation’s asylum laws and grant the president the authority to close the border, Congress does not need to enact legislation; rather, President Biden already possesses all the necessary tools to close the border without intervention from Congress.

Nonetheless, he advocated for border-related congressional action during the administration of former President Trump in 2019.

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