Ted Cruz: Russia Hoax ‘About Subverting Democracy’ — ‘They Were Mad’ About Donald Trump

Wednesday on FNC’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) reacted to recently unveiled evidence by Director of National Intelligence regarding former President Barack Obama’s alleged involvement in the so-called Russia hoax.
Cruz said it showed the outgoing Obama administration’s desire to subvert democracy.

Partial transcript as follows:

INGRAHAM: Senator, are we going to actually see people held accountable here?

CRUZ: Look, I hope and pray that we do, and I hope that the Justice Department fully investigates this. What’s critical that Tulsi Gabbard made public is not that that people put out allegations that Putin wanted Trump to win. It’s that they were lying and knew they were lying. That’s what’s explosive here, is that their repeated testimony to Congress was false. And you go through some of the facts that Tulsi put out. So, August 31, 2016, a DHS official tells former DNI James Clapper that there was, quote, no indication of a Russian threat to directly manipulate the actual vote count. That’s what they’re saying in August 2016.

September 2, 2016, the FBI said it was, quote, uncomfortable implying that there was definitive information that Russia intends to disrupt our elections. September 9, the intelligence community concluded that, quote, Russia was probably not trying to influence the election by using cyber means. September 12th, same thing. December 7, December 7, after the election, here was Clapper’s talking points written, quote, foreign adversaries did not use cyberattacks on an election infrastructure to alter the U.S. presidential election outcome.

December 8, Obama’s presidential daily briefing. Here’s what it said, quote, we assess that Russian and criminal actors did not impact recent U.S. election results by conducting malicious cyber activities against election infrastructure. So, all the way up to December 8, over and over and over again, they say, no, Russia, no Russia, no Russia. And then December 9, December 9, there’s a meeting with DNI Director Clapper with National Security Advisor Susan Rice, with Secretary of State John Kerry, and with Deputy FBI Director McCabe, in which they reversed their positions altogether. And they all come out to say, Russia, Russia, Russia. That’s why Trump got elected.

And I’ll tell you this December 9 meeting, FDR famously said December 7th is a date that will live in infamy. Well, December 9 should be a day that will live in infamy, because this is a moment when senior members of our government decided to lie to the American people and to sabotage President Donald Trump, who had just been elected by the American people.

INGRAHAM: In a CNN interview back in 2018, former DNI Chief Clapper admitted something about Obama. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CLAPPER, FORMER DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: If it weren’t for President Obama, we might not have done the intelligence community assessment that we did that set off a whole sequence of events which are still unfolding today, notably Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation. President Obama is responsible for that and it was he, who tasked us to do that intelligence community assessment in the first place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

INGRAHAM: No, he wasn’t admitting that it was all false, but he said it was Obama. This was after the entire intel community had, as you read, made their assessments, which are always changing. They’re always, you know, their assessments, they’re not — there never can be definitive conclusions. But the indication was Russia wasn’t, according to even what Obama said yesterday, he’s still lying.

CRUZ: And they suddenly erased everything they had been saying for months, and they reversed 180 degrees.

INGRAHAM: Was it Obama’s statement yesterday a lie, when he said Russia, Russia was trying — it didn’t indicate that in the intel assessments.

CRUZ: It didn’t indicate that, but — but listen, Barack Obama is profoundly partisan. The people around him, they are hardcore radicals. John Brennan, who ran the CIA. Do you know he voted for in 1976? He voted for Gus Hall. Gus Hall was the Communist Party nominee to be president because John Brennan said Jimmy Carter, who was running in 1976 is not liberal enough for John Brennan. He wanted a communist. And by the way, he’s admitted to this, he voted for the communist. He wanted a communist President of the United States.

Well, fast forward to Barack Obama and his wish came true, and understand these partisans are so contemptuous of the American people, what was the Russia hoax about? It was about subverting democracy. They were mad at the voters that they elected Donald Trump.

INGRAHAM: They want to punish them.

CRUZ: It’s the exact same sentiment that led to the lawfare last year of indicting Donald Trump four times. That ultimately was not about their hatred for Trump. It was about their contempt for the voters. They wanted to stop the American people from reelecting them, reelecting President Trump, and that contempt for the voters is manifestly through this willingness to lie to Congress and lie to the American people.