Sen. Ted Cruz on Trump’s Cabinet picks, the border wall and Hunter Biden’s pardon

Texas Senator Ted Cruz discussed President-elect Donald Trump’s administration’s cabinet picks on ABC News, the ongoing border crisis and President Biden’s decision to pardon his son Hunter.

Cruz, a Republican, said Tuesday after a conference call with his fellow Senate Republicans that Trump would confirm all of his nominees for federal government positions.

ABC News spoke with Cruz about Trump’s controversial Cabinet picks.

ABC NEWS: We’re joined now by Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz. He is also the President of the Board of Trade. Senator, thank you very much for your time tonight.

CRUZ: Linsey, great to be with you. Thank you for being me.

ABC NEWS: You’ve said you expect all of President-elect Trump’s picks to be confirmed. Regarding Pete Hegseth, in particular, the nominee for secretary of defense. Today, as you know, multiple sources told ABC News that Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis discussed the defense secretary job amid the allegations surrounding him. Does that give you pause that Hegseth hasn’t been confirmed after all?

CRUZ: Well, listen, that’s ultimately going to be a decision that President Trump has to make. I will say Pete Hegseth, he is a decorated wrestling veteran. He served our nation. It has been expanded several times. She spent her entire life fighting for our servicemen and women, fighting to defend our veterans.

And I think he has a clear vision to bring the Department of Defense back to its core mission of supporting the warfighters, to prepare and be ready to defeat the enemy if necessary, and to move in a way. from a political agenda that removes its main role.

I think all of that is critical. I think all of that is a priority for President Trump, and I think it’s a priority for this country. Ultimately, President Trump will decide which candidates he nominates.

ABC NEWS: Let’s talk about Kash Patel, of course, Trump’s pick for FBI director. You’ve come across as a very strong candidate. When Trump talked about becoming deputy director in 2020, then-Attorney General Bill Barr opposed the move so much, he said it would only happen “over my dead body.”

Patel has spoken positively about the QAnon conspiracy theory. In the past, you said you were going to close the FBI headquarters. In his book, you made a list of members of the Deep State that he wants to go after. Are any of these things bothering you?

CRUZ: Well, listen, I’ll say a couple of things. No. 1, if you look at Kash Patel’s background, he’s been a senior intelligence staffer on Capitol Hill. He has been a senior intelligence officer in the White House. He has been the chief of staff of the Department of Defense. He has been the deputy director of the National Intelligence. He is someone with a deep background, as well as being a federal public defender and prosecutor.

So he brings a deep background to the job. But secondly, I will say that the world and the FBI and the Department of Justice in particular are very, very different today than they were in 2020 when Bill Barr was Attorney General. And what we’ve seen for four years, tragically, has been the politicization and weaponization of the Justice Department and the FBI.

And much of the criticism leveled at Kash Patel is not that he is unqualified for the job, but quite the opposite, that his detractors fear that he will actually do what he promises to do, which is. clean up the political corruption that has unfortunately done real damage to the FBI.

ABC NEWS: On your podcast, “The Verdict with Ted Cruz,” you called Hunter Biden’s pardon a complete abuse of power. (President Joe) Biden, of course, repeatedly said he would not pardon Hunter Biden. Then he did just that. On the other hand, Trump pardoned the father of his son-in-law, Charles Kushner, his former chief of staff, Steve Bannon, among others.

He also stated that he can pardon the defendants of January 6. Of course, presidents have had this right for a long time. But at what point do you think forgiveness becomes a complete abuse of power, as you say?

CRUZ: Well, listen, one of the clear ways that it becomes an abuse of power is where Joe Biden and the White House lied for a year. Joe Biden repeatedly looked at the television cameras and said: I will not forgive Hunter Biden. No, no, no. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly said: no, no, no, zero chance of this happening. And as you pointed out in my podcast, “Judgment with Ted Cruz,” I announced a year ago, in January of this year, I said in December of 2024 that Joe Biden will pardon Hunter Biden.

I put the probability of that happening at 100%. And I said then and I still believe now that Joe Biden was lying when he said that, Karine Jean-Pierre was lying when they said that. They knew they were lying and everyone who listened to them knew they were lying. And I think that’s a real problem when you’re lying to the American people.

In my opinion, this Hunter Biden apology is, of course, a father who cares for his son. But I think at the heart of it is Joe Biden protecting Joe Biden and he doesn’t want an investigation into influence peddling and favor selling Joe Biden and his family have made tens of millions of dollars over the years doing exactly that.

ABC NEWS: Let’s turn to an issue that many have called the crisis on the southern border. You yourself come from an immigrant family. You spent a lot of time looking at this issue, which, as you know, has affected our country for decades. The Americans have spoken clearly and loudly. They want the current system fixed. Why do we have so many people trying to enter the southern border? And what is your solution to help solve this crisis on Day One?

CRUZ: Well, I think you’re absolutely right in this election, I don’t think there was a single issue in this election that was more important than securing our border. Should we have a voter mandate to secure the border? Now, you ask, how do we do that? Here’s the good news: we know how to do it because we’ve done it before. When President Trump was president I worked hand in hand with him to secure the border.

And we had tremendous successes in the last year of Trump’s presidency. We have reached the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years. We’ve done it before. We will do it again. How did this crisis happen? This crisis was intentional. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris caused a border crisis with three decisions they made in their first week in office.

No. 1, they immediately stopped building the border wall. No. 2, they reinstated the disastrous catch-and-release policy. And No. 3, they came out of the successful Mexico deal in Mexico. And the result was that we immediately went from the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years to the highest rate in the history of our country.

Twelve million people have entered illegally under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Here’s the good news, Linsey. Anything done by unilateral executive action can be undone by unilateral executive action. So I think that on Day One, on January 20 of next year, President Trump will reverse those three decisions. He will start building the border wall. It will end up catching and releasing. And in Mexico he is going to restore the Continue agreement.

And here’s my prediction: We’re going to see the numbers go down and it won’t take a year. It won’t take six months. The numbers will decrease in January and February next year. And then Congress will follow through with legislation and serious funding to secure the border and keep our community safe.

ABC NEWS: Senator Ted Cruz, we have more questions for you, but we’re out of time. I hope you come back to the show with us.

CRUZ: I hope so.

ABC NEWS: Thank you.