Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript: Interview with Sen. Ted Cruz

Interview

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Joining us now, Senator Ted Cruz from the great state of Texas.

Senator, how are you? Good to see you.

SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TX: Sean, great to be with you.

HANNITY: I watched and I watched closely and I'm paying very close attention. It's not every second, minute, hour of every day hating Donald Trump, and then it's the New Green Deal.

CRUZ: Yes.

HANNITY: And it's socialism at a level we've never seen before and -- with a predictable result, correct?

CRUZ: Look, the debate last night --

HANNITY: Take a sip of water. By the way, that's your Marco Rubio moment. Just in case you didn't know.

It happens, don't worry about it, Senator. It's OK.

But the thing is, when you look at the Democrats, and you play close attention, they seem to have a few agenda items, hating Trump, New Green Deal.

CRUZ: Yes. Look, the debate last night, the clown car has broken. There is no brake and it only steered left.

I got to say, it was scary last night. It was scary to see the Democrats, every one of them falling all over each other to get further and further and further left. You saw the Democrats -- you just went through it on your monologue, powerfully -- you saw them embrace late-term abortions. You saw them embrace 70 percent tax rate. You saw them embrace socialism. You saw them tell the American people, they want to take away everyone's health insurance.

And you saw them embrace open borders. One of the most disturbing exchanges was when the several of those candidates began saying they wanted to eliminate the provision and law that makes it illegal to cross the border, that makes it a crime to cross the border illegally.

Now, Sean, as you know, last month, we apprehended over 144,000 people in the month of May crossing illegally. Well, the Democratic solution to that is, well, let's not make it a crime. There we go, the problem goes away.

That is open borders. It's a responsible, and it is sadly where the Democratic Party is today.

HANNITY: You know, how did we go from supporting Obama's position to its immoral, and, you know, the guy you knew, Robert Francis, Bozo, Beto, whatever his name is, you know, literally saying tear down the walls, but yet, 90 percent of America's heroine comes across that border, we are losing 300 people a week in the opioid crisis, then fentanyl, add that to the mix.

I've interviewed these border agents that have spent, you know, over a decade talking about children, young girls being traffic for prostitution.

CRUZ: Yes, yes.

HANNITY: Twelve, 11, 12, 13 years old. And --

CRUZ: Sean, you and I have both been back to the border together. I'm going to be going on Monday back to the border, to really try to highlight the crisis we are having there.

Now, we saw some positive development today Congress finally passed what the president asked for, $4.5 billion, that includes over a billion dollars for Border Patrol, that includes over $200 million for ICE, that's good.

But here is the bad news: the Democrats in Congress refused to close the loopholes, the loopholes that are causing this crisis. They refused to do anything to fix the crisis and I will tell you one of the most disturbing reports I'm getting, Sean, I'm getting more and more reports from law enforcement of cartels and traffickers renting children, because idiotic policy that the Democrats have put in place is that if someone shows up with a child, that they are allowed to stay and they are allowed to go free.

And as a result, you are seeing little children who are suddenly -- they're finding more and more instances, whether with adults that are not their parents, that are not their family, that are strangers to them, but the child is essentially there get out of jail free card. That is cruel to incentivize kids being abused like that. And you know what? The Democrats on that stage, the Democrats on the stage right now, not a single one of them is willing to do anything to fix it.

HANNITY: OK. So, open borders and amnesty is a big part of their agenda, I don't even think the issue is about abortion, when you say no restrictions on abortions.

CRUZ: Yes.

HANNITY: And then we get into, then we get into what happened in Virginia and all these other states where we talk about during birth -- it's not abortion, it's infanticide, or post-birth infanticide.

CRUZ: Yes.

HANNITY: Then we've got a 70 percent top marginal tax rate for individuals, 90 percent for corporations. How many people Texas taken in a year now in terms of gaining population, it wasn't a close to 400,000 in the last year or two?

CRUZ: Yes, we get over 1,000 people a day move into the state of Texas.

HANNITY: A day.

CRUZ: Why? Because that's where the jobs are.

(CROSSTALK)

CRUZ: They are fleeing states like California and New York.

HANNITY: Yes. Wait a minute. So, Mike Huckabee say on the show the other day, now, if you are taking a U-haul from California to Texas, it's about 1,600 bucks. I have not heard this.

But if you are returning, you're basically doing U-haul a favor, it's 400 bucks, but it is probably negotiable. They might give it to you for $100.

(CROSSTALK)

CRUZ : Mike is exactly right, and for a long time , the price differential, going to California versus going to Texas, it's about 300 percent price differential in U-haul, that is been true for years because everyone is fleeing the sinking ship, as you have the crazy left jacking up taxes, jacking up regulations. They're just -- and welcoming people coming illegally.

And the job producers, the small business owners are fleeing the state of California, and in Texas -- I'll tell you something interesting, Sean, as the story came at a couple months ago. Do you know what the number one city in the United States of America for millennials moving into is? My hometown of Houston.

HANNITY: Yes.

CRUZ: Millennials are moving to Houston, the most diversity in America, why?

HANNITY: My niece is there now. She's a doctor.

CRUZ: Because you come to Houston, come to Texas, there are jobs. There are jobs and the wages are going up and you have opportunity because the government doesn't put their boot on the back of the necks of small businesses.

HANNITY: All right. So, here we have -- it was interesting, because Bill Maher, I don't like him but he sometimes makes some very honest statements. He said --

CRUZ: Yes.

HANNITY: -- not a good start because they didn't answer the first question. You know, 70 percent of Americans -- we now have the best employment situation in America since 1969. Principles, by the way, that you have supported your entire career, cutting taxes, deregulation, we are now energy dependent for the first time in 75 years.

The New Green Deal says no oil, no gas in 10 years. And, by the way, many of them are buying into this insanity, you know, the New Green Deal. Now, what would that do to a state like Texas? What would that do to the economy in general if you had a 70 percent personal tax rate and 90 percent corporate tax rate? What would it do? What would we end up?

CRUZ: It would destroy jobs. It would destroy opportunity all across the country.

You know, that tweet you mentioned from Bill Maher, I did something I don't think I've done before. I retweeted today Bill Maher because his tweet was exactly right, he said, look, the first question in the debate was a very question, 70 percent of Americans --

HANNITY: Ted Cruz retweeting Bill Maher, I like that.

CRUZ: But he rightly pointed out, you just said it. He said, look, 70 percent of Americans say the economy is doing well. Why do you guys think we should change it? And not one of the Democrats had an answer.

We've got -- you know this, Sean, and your viewers know this, we've got the lowest unemployment in 50 years, with lowest African-American unemployment ever recorded, lowest Hispanic unemployment ever recorded. And what they are proposing, the Green New Deal would cost will cost $93 trillion.

Now, it's hard sometimes to understand 1 million, a trillion, a billion, but let me put that in perspective. $93 trillion is more money than the federal government has spent in the entire history of the United States of America going back to George Washington.

It would mean about $65,000 per family in America per year. That's where the Democrats are. They are just -- look, Donald Trump has broken the Democratic Party. They hate him so much they are embracing policies that would destroy job across America and open up our borders. It's wrong.

HANNITY: Hey, we went from Obama-Biden eight years, 30 million new Americans on food stamps, 8 million in poverty. Now, we have 6 million off of food stamps and 6 million new jobs --

CRUZ: Yes.

HANNITY: -- in the best employment situation since 1969.

Senator, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.

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