Ted Cruz rejects the idea of serving on Trump’s Supreme Court: “I want to stay fighting”
America has one less nightmare scenario to contemplate today as Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that he wouldn’t accept a nomination to the Supreme Court if offered one by Donald Trump.
The president had included Senator Cruz on a list of potential conservative nominees to the nation’s highest court in a likely bid to overcome evangelical doubts about the wisdom of re-electing a man whose own behavior has violated every tenet of their supposed religious beliefs.
Appearing on Fox News‘s Sunday Morning Futures, Senator Cruz told host Maria Bartiromo that while he was proud to have been included on the list, it was not a job that he is particularly interested in.
“It is deeply honoring,” Cruz said. “It’s humbling to be included in the list. I’m grateful that the president has that confidence in me.”
“But it’s not the desire of my heart,” he continued. “I want to be in the political fight. I want to be fighting to nominate and confirm three, four, five principled constitutionalist justices.”
“I want to stay fighting right where I am in the U.S. Senate,” Cruz added.
We’ll let the citizens of an increasingly blue Texas determine how much longer Cruz gets to continue to fight to put right-wing ideologues on the Supreme Court as a Senator, but in the meantime, Trump’s evangelical potential voters will have to make do with the other nominees he included on his shortlist.
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That list includes such other sitting senators as Missouri’s Josh Hawley — who has also said that he has no interest in joining the court — and Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) who has already publicly stated that it is “time for Roe v. Wade to go.”
Despite the withdrawal of both Senators Cruz and Hawley from consideration for nomination as a Supreme Court Justice, there are plenty of other reactionary candidates capable of rolling back American jurisprudence to an imagined past of strict constitutionalism and original intent.
All the more reason to ensure Donald Trump’s defeat at the polls in November is massive and incontrovertible.
You can watch an excerpt of Senator Ted Cruz’s appearance on Fox News this morning in the video clip below.
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Original reporting by Justine Coleman at The Hill.
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Vinnie Longobardo is the Managing Editor of Occupy Democrats. He's a 35-year veteran of the TV, mobile & internet industries, specializing in start-ups and the international media business. His passions are politics, music, and art.