Sen. Ted Cruz managed to avoid directly answering whether violent Jan. 6 rioters should get taxpayer money as part of Donald Trump’s $1.8 billion slush fund by hiding in an elevator.
The Texas Republican was grilled by a TMZ reporter about whether those who committed some of the most heinous acts during the 2021 Capitol riot, including attacking police officers, should be allowed to apply for the president’s “weaponization” compensation scheme.
Cruz avoided answering the question, even when asked several times, until he and his team managed to get into an elevator and ride away. Cruz even gave a self-satisfied smile as the doors were closing as he refused to respond again when he was asked whether Jan. 6 rioters are eligible for the slush fund.
When the TMZ reporter first approached Cruz to ask whether violent Jan. 6 rioters should apply for the fund, the MAGA senator deflected and said: “I’m not surprised you’re worried about that, but I’m curious. Were you worried at all when Joe Biden was weaponizing the Department of Justice?”
When the reporter interrupted to say he did not want to talk about the former president but rather how he does not want to “pay Jan. 6 rioters,” Cruz continued to deflect the question.
“You were not remotely concerned when Joe Biden weaponized the Department of Justice to go after his political opponents, to prosecute them, to go after Donald Trump,” Cruz said. “Trump was indicted not once, but four separate times, the greatest abuse of the rule of law.”
When asked for a simple “yes or no” response to whether Jan. 6 rioters should be eligible for the slush fund, Cruz replied: “I think what the Biden Justice Department did is they prosecuted people who engaged in peaceful protests.
“I believe people who engage in active violence should be prosecuted and face consequences. I believe people who engage in peaceful protests are protected under the First Amendment, and I think the Biden Department of Justice deliberately targeted people who engage in peaceful protests.”
The TMZ reporter tried once more to get Cruz to answer his question before the Republican got into an elevator and was saved by the closing doors.
The Daily Beast has contacted Cruz’s office for comment.
Trump has been widely criticized for the creation of the $1.776 billion compensation scheme for those who claim they were victims of the alleged “weaponization” of the Department of Justice during the Biden years.
The slush fund was created as part of an agreement for the president to drop a $10 billion lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over complaints that the agency failed to prevent the leaking of his tax returns to the press in 2020.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, Trump’s former personal lawyer, later expanded the deal so that the IRS is “forever barred” from pursuing any audits into past tax claims involving Trump, his family, or his companies.
“This is corruption that has never been more blatant or more widespread,” Sen. Patty Murray said while grilling Blanche during a Senate appropriations hearing on Tuesday.
“But what is happening is that you write the check, Trump and his cronies cash it,” the Washington Democrat said. “American taxpayers—who are already being whacked with high prices—are going to foot the bill. That is what we are seeing today and that is what many of us are really, really angry about.”
