U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, made a stop in Fort Worth on Wednesday to discuss the Texas economy and later, the subject of the week on news channels – the indictment and arrest of former President Donald Trump.
“My No. 1 priority in the Senate is jobs, more jobs, higher wages, more opportunity,” the Republican senator said after his discussion with members of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce .“The reason is simple. That is the No. 1 priority for Texans all across our great state, north Texas, south Texas, east and west. Texans want more jobs.”
Cruz said the reason about 1,000 people a day move to Texas is because jobs are here.
Texas, with low taxes and reasonable regulations, is providing an environment where jobs are plentiful, Cruz said.
“The states that have high taxes and high regulations, the people are fleeing because there are no jobs and they’re coming to red states with lots of opportunities and we’ve got a real responsibility to keep the Texas miracle prospering here,” he said.
When asked about Trump, who pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 34 felony counts on charges of falsifying business records brought by an investigation led by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Braggs, Cruz called it a “dark day.”
“The indictment of Donald Trump was political,” he said. “It was an abuse of power. It was baseless. It was frivolous.”
Like many Trump supporters, Cruz said the prosecutors in the case are abusing the justice system in pursuit of the former president, the first to ever be criminally indicted.
“Whether you like Donald Trump or whether you can’t stand Donald Trump, you should be very concerned that prosecutors are trying to prevent the voters from electing someone just because the prosecutor is of a different political party,” he said.
Cruz also commented on a tentative $144.5 million civil settlement between the Department of Justice and the 75 plaintiffs in the Sutherland Springs mass shooting in 2017 that killed 26 people. In 2021, a federal court ruled that the U.S. government was liable for damages caused by the shooting when the U.S. Air Force didn’t submit the shooter’s criminal history to the FBI’s background check system.
Cruz had introduced legislation in 2013 that would have required audits of federal agencies to target felons and others who attempt to purchase firearms illegally. Cruz felt if that legislation had passed, it might have been effective in helping prevent tragedies like the Sutherland Springs shooting.
Cruz has also proposed a $15 billion bill to double the number of school security officers around the country. “We need to do more to protect our kids,” he said.
“The Democrat’s answer of taking away firearms from law-abiding homes won’t prevent these kinds of crimes,” he said. “But protecting our kids, that has a much greater likelihood of stopping this kind of horrific murder.”
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policyhere.