On CBS's "Face the Nation," host Margaret Brennan confronted Senator Ted Cruz on his continued false claims of voting fraud.
She pressed Cruz on his role in the events of Jan. 6.
"What I did was lead 11 senators in a constitutional option which I think would have been much better for our democracy because we right now have a substantial chunk of our country that has real doubts about the integrity of the election," Cruz said. "And if we had a credible electoral commission, do an emergency audit. It would have enhanced faith in democracy."
"But instead, Democrats and a lot of the press decided to just engage in incendiary rhetoric rather than acknowledge voter fraud is real. It is a problem and one of the allegations of voter fraud needs to be examined on the merits," continued Cruz.
"OK, senator. There is no evidence of fraud that would have really drawn the outcome of the election into doubt. You know that," Brennan pushed back.
"Voter fraud has been persistent since the very first election," Cruz remarked, as Brennan changed the topic to whether Cruz was running for President in 2024, without pressing further and disputing Cruz's claims.
MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan criticized Brennan on Twitter, writing "if you're going to platform an election denier and insurrection inciter like Ted Cruz . . . you need to press him, and push back, on his dangerous lies, much, much harder than this."
"Call a lie a lie!" Hasan continued in a thread.
Before a mob of pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S., Cruz was leading a small cohort of senators that planned on objecting to the certification of electors in the 2020 election in what many called a political stunt. In a speech, Cruz said that if the election was certified, Americans would get the message that "voter fraud doesn't matter, isn't real and shouldn't be taken seriously."
After the Capitol was cleared and the Senate and House of Representatives reconvened to vote to certify the election, Cruz was one of eight senators — all Republicans — to vote to overturn the election. Cruz has continued to perpetuate former President Trump's false claims of fraud in the 2020 election.
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