Katie Couric interviews Ted Cruz
Ted Cruz joined Yahoo global news anchor Katie Couric on Monday to discuss his campaign, his record, and his new book, “A Time for Truth.” Watch a replay of the interview above.
Ted Cruz continued his verbal assault on last week’s historic Supreme Court decisions on Monday, saying the justices who ruled in favor of Obamacare and gay marriage “rewrote the Constitution.”
“They joined a team, they put on bright-blue Obama jerseys, and they rewrote the law,” the U.S. senator from Texas told Yahoo News’ Katie Couric during a live sit-down interview from Yahoo’s New York City studios. “Those decisions are a threat to our democracy.”
Cruz slammed Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the majority opinion in the Obamacare case on behalf of what the 2016 Republican presidential hopeful called “five unelected lawyers.”
“I think the chief justice believes somehow that by rewriting Obamacare, he’s keeping the Supreme Court out of politics,” Cruz said. “But sadly, these will go down in his legacy as the most political decisions he has ever made. And [they are] violating his oath of office.”
The court’s decision to effectively legalize same-sex marriage in every state, Cruz said, is a “profound threat to the religious liberty to millions of men and women,” regardless of their faith.
The Supreme Court ruling extends to gay couples the ability to apply for and be granted state-issued marriage licenses, but some conservative religious leaders worry about being petitioned directly to take part in services or otherwise recognize marriages their faiths continue to oppose.
“Society has no right to force a Jewish rabbi to perform a Christian wedding ceremony,” he said. “Society has no right to force a Muslim imam to perform a Jewish wedding ceremony.”
“There’s nothing in the Constitution that demands we tear down the marriage laws in every state,” Cruz, a conservative Christian, continued. “I am eager to fight for religious liberty.”
Couric asked Cruz whether he’s out of step with public opinion on gay marriage because 60 percent of Americans believe same-sex marriages should be recognized as legal.
“I’m not at all,” Cruz said, blaming “liberals” and Hollywood for pushing the gay-marriage agenda.
The 44-year-old first-term senator vowed to expose what he called the “Washington cartel” in his run for the White House.
“I think it‘s wrong when our elected leaders are lying to the American people and treating us like we’re stupid,” the first-term senator said. “People are fed up with politicians who say one thing and do another.”
In Cruz’s view, that includes Supreme Court justices.
“The Supreme Court represents the elites in New York and Washington, D.C.,” Cruz said.
Cruz vowed to expose what he called the “Washington cartel” in his run for the White House. (Photo: Gordon Donovan/Yahoo News)
On the issue of the environment, Cruz dismissed climate change as a “pseudoscientific theory.”
“Satellite data shows there has been no significant recorded warming. None,” Cruz said. “When the satellites are measuring the temperature — it’s not happening.”
Climate change, he said, “is being driven by politicians who want more control over our lives.”
On the subject of terrorism, Cruz criticized President Obama for not correctly defining the threat.
“We cannot defeat radical Islamic terrorism with a president who is unwilling to utter the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism,’” Cruz said. “It matters.”
The Obama administration, Cruz said, is engaging in what he calls “photo-op foreign policy” — “drop a bomb here, a missile there.”
“We should be funding the Kurds and using them as boots on the ground,” he said.
Republican candidate and first-term senator Ted Cruz told Yahoo global news anchor Katie Couric, “There is no stronger champion of legal immigration than I am in the Senate.” (Photo: Gordon Donovan/Yahoo News)
On immigration, the Canadian-born Texan and son of a Cuban immigrant said America needs to “get serious” about securing its borders.
“There is no stronger champion of legal immigration in the Senate than I am,” Cruz said.
But the Texas senator declined to answer the question of what to do with the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.
“With respect to the people who are here illegally now, I don’t think we have to solve everything at once,” he said.
Speaking about his chances of winning the Republican nomination, Cruz dismissed polls that show him trailing his GOP rivals despite being the first to launch a campaign.
“I think national polls are almost entirely irrelevant,” Cruz said. “I think the energy and enthusiasm we are seeing [on the campaign trail] is incredible.”
Cruz sits down with Couric at Yahoo Studios in New York City on Monday. (Photo: Gordon Donovan/Yahoo News)