https://youtube.com/watch?v=81KnkDP1CbE
Republican Texas senator Ted Cruz doubled down after conservatives criticized his maneuvers this past weekend, saying he’s there to upend the existing Washington system and comparing himself to “disruptive” tech apps like Uber and Lyft.
Already scorned by many of his Senate colleagues, Cruz’s attempt to buck his party over the passage of last weekend’s “omnibus” spending bill earned him the ire of influential conservative columnists George Will and Charles Krauthammer.
On Fox News’s Special Report on Tuesday, host Bret Baier asked the senator how he’s handling the criticism. “You know, in some level, I’ll agree with what they said,” Cruz said. “I am not trying to play the rules of Washington. Because I think Washington’s broken — I think it’s profoundly broken — and I think the only answer is to change Washington.”
Cruz compared his tactics to “disruptive” tech apps. “Let’s take, for example, Uber coming in or Lyft coming into a city,” he said. “Whenever that happens, the existing providers fight like cats and dogs. The taxi commissions have done everything they can do kill Uber and Lyft.”
“What we’re trying to do in the political world is very much the same thing,” he continued, “which is change the means of decision-making. Take it out of the smoke-filled rooms, where decision-making is done in Washington between career politicians and lobbyists, and instead empower the people.”