Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said Senate Republicans have "basically declared war" on House Republicans after introducing a questionable bipartisan border bill earlier this week.
Cruz discussed the bill and its effects on the Republicans in both chambers of Congress during a Tuesday episode of his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz.
“Senate Republican leadership has basically declared war on House Republicans,” Cruz said of the bill negotiations. “I had been standing up, as have a number of other conservatives making the case against this, and many of my Republican colleagues are getting really pissed off.”
The Texas senator said there had been "energetic disagreements" among Senate Republicans during their lunches.
"I think the chances of the bill passing the House are 0%," he added, noting House Republican leadership, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, said the bill would be "DEAD on arrival" if the bill reached the lower chamber.
Cruz said a fair number of Republican senators "desperately" wanted to vote for the bill. The bill is about "political messaging" and giving "political cover for Democrats," according to Cruz.
“This enables Chuck Schumer, it enables every Democrat running for reelection and enables Joe Biden to, number one, to not secure the border, to leave the crisis exactly as it is," he said. "But number two, to say, ‘Well, we wanted to secure the border, but the Republicans stopped us.'"
The Texas senator said Senate Republican leadership wanted to use the bill's passage as a "club to beat the crap out of House Republicans" and diminish the leverage of House Republican's slim majority.
"It is literally Senate Republican leadership helping the Democrats in the House," he added.
“You are reading Chuck Schumer’s talking points,” he said. “And your lie will be used to reelect Democrats to the Senate and in the House."
Cruz said Republicans who support the bill were being "useful idiots."
The bill failed to pass a Senate vote on Wednesday with a vote of 49 in favor and 50 opposed. Four Republicans, including Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, and Arkansas Sen. Lisa Murkowski, voted in favor of the bill.
Lankford was a lead negotiator of the deal along with Sen. Krysten Sinema, an Independent, and Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat.
The contested legislation would have enacted border emergency authority if “an average of 5,000 or more” illegal border crossings happen in a seven-day period, or if a combined total of 8,500 border crossings are observed on any one calendar day.
