Texas Senator Ted Cruz cast the lone vote Tuesday against a bipartisan bill designed to prevent another insurrection like the one on Jan. 6, 2021, in which he became the center of attention by objecting to the election results.
On January 6, 2021, Cruz led a faction of Senate Republicans who objected to the 2020 presidential election result, amplifying then-President Donald Trump’s lies about election fraud and siding with a violent mob of Trump supporters who stormed the U.S. Capitol.
The Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday approved a bipartisan bill, by a vote of 14 to 1, that would make it harder for Cruz to raise another presidential election objection in 2025. Cruz was the only committee member who voted against the bill.
“The biggest reason this bill is problematic is that it is intended to decrease the ability of the United States Congress to address the very real problem of voter fraud,” Cruz said, according to the Huffington Post.
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“Today’s Democrats have made, I think, a really cynical political decision that voter fraud, they believe, helps elect more Democrats, and so the more fraud, the better,” Cruz said. “What this bill does is decrease the ability of Congress to address instances of fraud when it occurs.”
One of the bill’s key provisions would require a fifth of lawmakers in both the House and Senate to object to a state’s election result. Another key provision would simply state that the vice president has a ceremonial role in electoral count proceedings; Trump had wanted Mike Pence to somehow throw out the 2020 result.
When Cruz raised his objection on Jan. 6, he needed only himself and one member of the House. The effort failed to change the outcome, but it made Cruz the center of attention and gave Trump an opportunity for his insurrection attempt.
The bill will get a full Senate vote sometime before the end of the year, HuffPost reported.
