'It's a yes or no question': CNN's Kaitlan Collins presses Ted Cruz on election acceptance
CNN's Kaitlan Collins' yes or no question to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) triggered a lively back-and-forth.
Cruz sat opposite Collins to chat about a variety of items including his stance on IVF (he's for it), past grievances with former President Donald Trump churning a lie that his father for the assassination of President John F. Kennedy (Cruz forgave him).
But when it came to whether or not he would embrace the results of the upcoming 2024 election, Cruz stayed vague.
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"I do want to ask what the election you were the first senator to object to the votes in 2024 will you certified the election results: Do you plan to object or will you accept the results regardless of who wins the election?
He told her instead: "So Kaitlan, I gotta say, I think that's actually a ridiculous question."
"It's a yes or no question," she retorted.
"No, it's not; let me explain why it's ridiculous question — it's not a question — have you ever asked a Democrat that question?"
Cruz asked why Democrats aren't asked the same question.
"You cannot compare the two situations," she told him. "But have you ever had a sitting president who refused to facilitate peaceful transition of power. Refused to acknowledge that his successor won the presidency?"
Cruz responded, "We did have a peaceful transfer of power," he said. "I was there on January 20. I was there on the swearing in.
"Barely," Collins reminded him.
An unfazed Cruz kept going: "B.... In 2001 Democrats went to the Senate floor and objected to President George W. Bush... In 2016, Democrats went and objected to Donald Trump."
Collins then educated Cruz: "So what happened in 2016? Because, I remember a guy named Joe Biden who was vice president — and he went to the Senate floor and certified the votes. Am I wrong?"
Cruz then tried to clarify his position.
"So you're asking: Will you promise no matter what to agree an election as illegitimate regardless of what happens," he asked. "And that would be an absurd thing to claim."
"Like we have an entire election law system that people challenge elections, elections get overturned, voter fraud gets proven — that happens all the time and the media engages in this weird game post-Donald Trump that you insist no voter fraud has ever existed. Why does every state have laws in place to challenge voter fraud if it occurs?"
But Collins informed him: "Only Republicans are asked that tried to block the transition of power. You have to acknowledge that. We've never seen it on a scale of what happened in 2020. And we've never seen the president refused. He wouldn't even let Joe Biden get classified briefings at the beginning."