Transcript: Sen. Ted Cruz on

The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Dec. 1, 2024.

MAJOR GARRETT: We turn now to Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who joins us this morning from Houston. Senator, it’s good to see you. Good morning to you. Let’s pick up this thread on tariffs. I remember covering your presidential campaign in 2016 and you were a skeptic of tariffs. Then I know the politics around tariffs have changed, President-elect Trump has done that, but have the economics changed? 

SEN. TED CRUZ: Well, I’ll tell you, what hasn’t changed is, is the importance of leverage. And I got to say, you look at the threat of tariffs against Mexico and Canada, immediately has produced action. We’ve seen the President of Mexico stand up and promise that she is going to work hand in hand with the President of the United States, President Trump, to secure the border. I’ll tell you, representing Texas, we’ve seen four years of an invasion at our southern border. Let me ask you, Major. Why hasn’t Joe Biden done this? Why hasn’t Joe Biden actually stood up and used leverage to secure the border? And the reason is, Joe Biden and the Democrats wanted this invasion to happen. And I got to say, this is a promise that I believe President Trump is going to deliver on and deliver quickly. We are going to secure the border. This is about using leverage to get Mexico and Canada to cooperate. And I’ll tell you Major I think one of the very first bills we’re going to take up in the Senate, vote on, and I hope pass, is my legislation, the Justice for Jocelyn Act, that is a response to the horrific rape and murder of Jocelyn Nungaray, 12-year-old girl in Houston, Texas, killed by violent criminal illegal aliens released by Joe Biden and the Democrats. This is a promise the President needs to deliver on and I think he’s going to.

MAJOR GARRETT: So when you think about tariffs and President-elect Trump, you don’t take them seriously as an economic matter. You take them seriously only as a diplomatic lever. 

SEN. CRUZ: Well, look, I think the President was explicit with Mexico and Canada. He said he will impose these tariffs unless they secure the border. It was explicitly leveraged. And by the way, that is the same way that President Trump negotiated the Remain in Mexico agreement. If you remember, during his first term, President Trump threatened tariffs against Mexico and AMLO, then the President of Mexico. He was incredibly scared and concerned. He was scared of Trump, and he ended up signing the remain in Mexico agreement, which produced the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years. It was incredibly successful. What did Joe Biden the Democrats do when they came in? The very first week in office, they ripped up that incredibly successful international agreement. I expect we will once again enter into remain in Mexico, and we are going to see, I make a prediction right now, we will see the numbers plummet of illegal immigration coming into this country, not in a year, not in six months, but in January and February, because we will have a president who will vigorously enforce the law. 

MAJOR GARRETT: On that point. Senator Cruz, you would concede, in the last three or four months, numbers have gone down already, have they not?

SEN. CRUZ: They have ticked down slightly. We have still seen over these four years the highest rate of illegal immigration in our nation’s history. 12 million illegal immigrants have come into this country. And I got to say, in a state like Texas, you want to see the consequences. This last election was an incredible landslide for President Trump. He won all seven of the swing states. And in Texas, President Trump won Hispanic voters in Texas, I won Hispanic voters in Texas, I won statewide by a million votes, nine points. And South Texas, the Rio Grande Valley, has literally spent over 100 years as a bright blue Democrat Bastion. This cycle, South Texas flipped Republican. And it is amazing what having 12 million people invade your home can do to change people’s voting behavior. I think the President has a mandate to deliver on securing the border, and I look forward to working hand in hand with him to deliver on that promise.

MAJOR GARRETT: Kash Patel suggested by President Trump as the new leader of the FBI. How enthusiastic are you about that?

SEN. CRUZ: Listen, I think Kash Patel is a very strong nominee. I think the entire slate of Cabinet nominees President Trump has put forward is very strong. I believe every one of these Cabinet nominees is going to be confirmed by the Senate. I think Kash Patel is going to be confirmed by the Senate. You look at his background, he has a serious professional background. He was a prosecutor, he was a public defender. He was a senior intelligence staffer on Capitol Hill. He was a senior intelligence staffer in the White House. He was the Chief of Staff of the Department of Defense. He was the deputy director of national intelligence. And I got to say, all of the weeping and gnashing of teeth, all of the people pulling their hair out, are exactly the people who are dismayed about having a real reformer come into the FBI and clean out the corrupted partisans who sadly have burrowed into senior career positions at the FBI. The FBI and the Department of Justice are two institutions incredibly important to the rule of law in the United States. I revere both. And one of the most tragic consequences of four years of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris is both the DOJ and the FBI have been politicized and weaponized, and I think Kash Patel is a very strong nominee to take on the partisan corruption in the FBI. 

MAJOR GARRETT: As you know, Senator, there isn’t a vacancy at the top of the FBI. What should become of Christopher Wray, appointed by President Trump?

SEN. CRUZ: Well, I think he’ll make a choice. I think either he will resign or President Trump will fire him. But it’s no secret to anybody, including Chris Wray, that he is not going to continue to serve as the head of the FBI under Donald Trump. Listen, if you look at James Comey and Chris Wray, there has never been a period in our nation’s history where the FBI has suffered a greater loss of respect, where more Americans doubt the fundamental integrity of the FBI, and it’s because James Comey and Chris Wray presided over allowing the FBI to become a partisan cudgel to be used to target parents at school board meetings, to be used to target people who chose not to take the COVID vaccine, to be used to target President Trump and to target the political opponents of Joe Biden the White House. It is tragic. That is not what the FBI is for. That is not what the DOJ is for. And I got to say Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, I think together, are a very strong slate of nominees to go and restore integrity to both institutions. 

MAJOR GARRETT: How do you place that up against the prosecutions of Bob Menendez, a congressman, a Democrat from Texas, Hunter Biden. Are those political prosecutions as well or not?

SEN. CRUZ: Well, first of all, let’s be clear, Bob Menendez was- was literally caught with gold bars and a stack of cash with his fingerprints taking bribes, and it’s why Bob Menendez is not my colleague anymore. At that point, the evidence was overwhelming. Look Major, I wrote an entire book entitled “Justice Corrupted: How the Left Has Weaponized the Legal System”, and it broke down- it started sadly under Barack Obama, where he began using the federal government to target his political opponents. The book details how many of those partisans then burrowed in to senior career positions during the Trump administration. They waged war against President Trump during his first term, and now under Joe Biden, they have been open and brazen, and I think it has done unbelievable damage to the integrity of the Department of Justice and the FBI. I think Merrick Garland will go down in history as the most partisan Attorney General our nation has ever seen. And I got to say, I hear regularly from- from prosecutors, from FBI agents, who are deeply dismayed about the institution they devoted a lifetime working for because- listen, I don’t want a Republican Department of Justice. I don’t want a Democrat Department of Justice. I want a Department of Justice and an FBI that enforces the law regardless of party. And sadly, we haven’t seen that these last four years.

MAJOR GARRETT: What can you tell us about the three Americans released by China who are in San Antonio. Have you been in touch with them? And do you have any concerns about the contours of that swap?

SEN. CRUZ: Well, at this stage, we don’t know all of the details of the contours of the swap, but I’ll tell you, I am celebrating the return of three Americans, especially Mark Swidan. Mark Swidan is a Texan from Houston. His mom, Katherine, is from Luling, Texas. I’ve talked with Katherine many times. I authored and passed a resolution in the Senate that passed unanimously calling for Mark Swidan’s return to America. He spent 12 years unjustly imprisoned in communist China. I’ll tell you, I have raised it directly with the foreign minister of China. I’ve raised it with President Biden. I’ve raised it with Secretary of State, Tony Blinken, and I will give them credit on this. Tony Blinken, just two weeks ago was the most recent time I spoke with him about Mark Swidan, and the administration has pressed the Chinese government and Mark Sweden is back home with his mother, who has prayed for him, who has loved- loved him. I want to say, Mark, welcome home. Katherine, congratulations. I told you this day would come. This is a time where all Texans and all Americans should be celebrating. 

MAJOR GARRETT: Very quickly, Senator Cruz. Because I also know you care about the case of Austin Tice. Do you have any sense that the rebel gains in Syria of the recent vintage will have any chance of unlocking Austin Tice’s freedom?

SEN. CRUZ: I don’t know. I certainly hope and pray Austin Tice needs to come home, and I hope and pray. Listen, there’s a combination of two things working. One, as Joe Biden is in the process of transitioning out any- any outgoing President is looking to try to get some final wins, I would encourage him, and I’m sure he is doing everything he can to bring Austin Tice home, to bring the hostages in Gaza home, both the Israelis and the Americans bring them home in this window. I also think President Trump coming into office on January 20, the enemies of America, I think, are afraid of President Trump. That is a moment- I hope we have a moment right now that is very much like the end of the Jimmy Carter Administration right before Ronald Reagan came in. And we saw on January 20, our hostages in Iran released, I think, in significant part because the Ayatollah was afraid of Reagan. I hope a similar dynamic is playing out, and if we can see more hostages come home, that would be cause for enormous celebration. 

MAJOR GARRETT: Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, thank you. Good morning. We’ll be back with Face the Nation in just one moment. Please stay with us.