Majority Leader Mitch McConnell apparently figured he could appease Sen. Ted Cruz and get a highway bill passed with an amendment to reopen the Export-Import Bank if he put
yet another Obamacare repeal amendment on the bill. He thought wrong.
Cruz blew a gasket on the Senate floor, and focused his entire assault on McConnell, going where senators just don't go. He called McConnell a liar, saying that in private talks the majority leader assured him that there was no deal with Democrats to bring back the Ex-Im Bank.
"The majority leader was visibility [sic] angry with me that I would ask him such a question," Cruz said. "The majority looked at me and said 'there is no deal, there is no deal, there is no deal."
The Texas Republican said that his staff at the time told him that McConnell is "lying to you," but Cruz suggested that he took the Republican leader at his word.
"What I told my staff that afternoon, I said, well I don't know if that's the case or not. But I don't see how when the majority leader looks me in the eyes and makes an explicit promise," he added. "I don't see how I cannot take him at his word." […]
"Well, we now know that when the majority leader looks us in the eyes and makes an explicit commitment that he is willing to say thing that he knows are false," the Texas Republican added, arguing it could have ramifications down the road.
Cruz said that McConnell had failed in his leadership, that with Republicans in the majority they had
"rammed through" confirmation of Attorney General Loretta Lynch and funded Obamacare. He even said that McConnell was just as bad as Democratic Leader Harry Reid, because he used the procedural tactic of "filling the tree"—using the majority leader's privilege to block all amendments except his own—on this bill, something Republicans had repeatedly blasted Reid for when he led the Senate. And in a remarkable admission,
agreed with Reid that "the Obamacare amendment is a cynical amendment. Of course it is. It is empty showmanship."
So far, McConnell's office has no comment. The Senate will come back on Sunday for votes on these amendments. It's safe to say Cruz will take that opportunity to make some more headlines. He's got to do something to out-Trump Trump.
The video of the entire rant is below.
