‘Gaslighting 101’: Sen. Ted Cruz Ripped For One Of His Biggest, Boldest Lies Yet
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Twitter users called out Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Thursday over an easily debunked claim he made about Republicans and the Supreme Court.
During a press conference to urge President Joe Biden to reject any attempt to expand the Supreme Court, Cruz said:
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): "You didn't see Republicans when we had control of the Senate try to rig the game. You didn't see us try to pack the court." pic.twitter.com/reUU9WJU1d
— The Recount (@therecount) April 22, 2021
Critics were quick to point out that in 2016, Senate Republicans, led by then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, blocked then-President Barack Obama’s appointment of Merrick Garland to a Supreme Court seat for almost a year. At the time, Republicans claimed that an open court seat could not be filled in an election year.
After Donald Trump won the 2016 election, Garland’s nomination died. Senate Republicans then nixed the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations in 2017 to confirm Neil Gorsuch instead, the first of three Trump appointments to the court.
In 2020, when Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died just weeks before the election, Senate Republicans forgot the McConnell Rule about keeping such seats open and rushed to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the court.
Given those very recent events, Cruz’s critics weren’t buying his claim that Republicans hadn’t rigged the system to stack the court:
Gaslighting 101 on display here. Republicans practically sprained their ankles rushing to steal Ginsburg’s seat before the election. https://t.co/bPxIdl4gXC
— Bill Pascrell, Jr. (@BillPascrell) April 22, 2021
Liars! Is it amnesia, sniffing glue or too many free cocktails in first class to Cancun?!
We remember the past few years: Cruz, Mitch & crew: 1) stole a Sup. Court seat (Garland), 2) got rid of Sup Ct filibusters (Gorsuch) & in Oct. rewrote the rules to steal another (Barrett). https://t.co/nYJjAoLaNS— Jaime Harrison, DNC Chair (@harrisonjaime) April 22, 2021
That's... exactly what we saw. https://t.co/lg0cWvEzbu
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) April 22, 2021
Irony is dead. https://t.co/EFsuRq0qV2
— Jo (@JoJoFromJerz) April 22, 2021
LOL biggest lie I’ve ever heard!! Wtf @tedcruz 😆🥴🙄 https://t.co/HiwRjggFs4
— Nikki Balzzz (@NikkiBalzzz) April 22, 2021
This is a lie. A demonstrable lie. https://t.co/zfmsyLtpWK https://t.co/vmysCS58G5
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) April 22, 2021
You’re a liar @tedcruz. @GOP stole two seats while enabling Individual One to appoint A THIRD of the justices on Supreme Court of the United States FOR LIFE. Sit down. https://t.co/O8NV2sdrY2
— (((Bradley Whitford))) (@BradleyWhitford) April 22, 2021
Republicans quite literally changed the number of seats on the court from 9 to 8 for an entire year, and then re-added that seat once they were assured a Republican would fill it. https://t.co/u9fB0t2SHF
— Brian Tyler Cohen (@briantylercohen) April 22, 2021
motherfucker you packed the court faster than you packed your go-bag for cancun https://t.co/m8h57cJhFn
— Matt Negrin, HOST OF HARDBALL AT 7PM ON MSNBC (@MattNegrin) April 22, 2021
Um....
You shrunk it then packed it. https://t.co/TxGI84ZSZM— David Pepper (@DavidPepper) April 22, 2021
Well...yes...that's EXACTLY what you did. If McConnell hadn't bent the rules to get Gorsuch and Barrett, we wouldn't be here now... https://t.co/zL7ml1RMC5
— Morgan Fairchild (@morgfair) April 22, 2021
Republicans wouldn’t even give Merrick Garland a vote because it was an election year. Then they rammed Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination through in a record 35 days because it was an election year. https://t.co/A7JRBrr6BJ
— Molly Knight (@molly_knight) April 22, 2021
yes we did
yes
we did https://t.co/l1z5ut5CRw— darth™ (@darth) April 22, 2021
Just a reminder that had Clinton won in 2016, Cruz said that he planned on trying to keep the then-vacant Scalia seat open until a Republican took office again. https://t.co/TU0K34zdbo
— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) April 22, 2021
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.