Ted Cruz Quotes & Sayings

I am not the candidate of career politicians in Washington. — Ted Cruz

Congress needs to send a strong signal that direct communication with the leader of the free world is a privilege, particularly for a regime that has been as hostile as Iran has been towards America for more than three decades. President Rouhani needs to take these two simple steps to demonstrate good faith before any further discussions. — Ted Cruz

Every candidate is going to come to you and say they are the most conservative person that ever lived. — Ted Cruz

We need to protect the privacy rights of all Americans, and that means stopping the federal government from spying on the cellphones and emails of law-abiding citizens. — Ted Cruz

At the end of the day, the Washington establishment is going to go where they're going to go. — Ted Cruz

I think God has blessed this country with enormous natural resources, and we should pursue all of the above. We should be developing oil, and gas, and coal, and nuclear, and wind, and solar, and ethanol, and biofuels. But, I don't believe that Washington should be picking winners and losers. — Ted Cruz

Let's go back to the beginning of the Obama administration, when Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama led NATO in toppling the government in Libya. They did it because they wanted to promote democracy. A number of Republicans supported them. Well, the result is, Libya is now a terrorist war zone run by jihadists. — Ted Cruz

Yet we have tens of millions of people in this country out of work. Every month we get the reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that say even more people have given up looking for work. The — Ted Cruz

If I am elected president we will secure the border and we will end the illegal immigration. — Ted Cruz

My focus has been and will continue to be on doing my job. — Ted Cruz

We are here today because of grass-roots conservatives all over the place. That's the way the democratic process is supposed to work. It's not supposed to be a bunch of guys in a smoky room in Austin picking the next Senator. — Ted Cruz

I salute the House for having the courage to stand up and fight and defund ObamaCare. And I remain confident, hopeful and optimistic the House will stand their ground, will continue the fight, which means this issue is coming back to the Senate. And when it comes back to the Senate, after the House stands their ground yet again, we will have an opportunity for Republicans to come home. — Ted Cruz

There is a liberal fascism that is dedicated to going after believing Christians who follow the biblical teaching on marriage. — Ted Cruz

In the Senate, there is a wide spectrum of views on foreign policy. — Ted Cruz

Leading from behind doesn't work. — Ted Cruz

In the 13 months I've been in the Senate, it has become apparent to me the single thing that Republican politicians hate and fear the most, and that is when they're forced to tell the truth. It makes their heads explode. — Ted Cruz

The single biggest surprise about arriving to the Senate is the defeatist attitude here. — Ted Cruz

My dad grew up with an avocado tree in his backyard. My entire family, my wife and daughters, they love avocado. I may well be allergic. It makes me physically sick. — Ted Cruz

We need a president who is willing to uphold the law. — Ted Cruz

When George W. Bush entered office, the national debt was $5 trillion. When he left, it was $10 trillion. I think the administration spent too much money. — Ted Cruz

I grew up listening to classic rock - the Kinks, Genesis, The Who, Pink Floyd. — Ted Cruz

It has been suggested that those of us who are fighting to defend liberty - fighting to turn around the out-of-control spending and out-of-control debt in this country, fighting to defend the Constitution, it has been suggested that we are wacko birds. — Ted Cruz

I want more rules, more scrutiny, and to defend the country. — Ted Cruz

Fifty-six Democratic senators proposed repealing the free-speech protections of the First Amendment. The media were silent, and yet the American people deserve to know that a majority of their senators were so afraid of political opposition that they wanted to empower the federal government to police who can speak, and when, and for how long - and on what subjects. That was a radical break from the vision of our Founders. — Ted Cruz

I'm not serving in office because I desperately needed 99 new friends in the U.S. Senate. — Ted Cruz

Ronald Reagan reignited the American economy, rebuilt the Military, bankrupted the Soviet Union and defeated Soviet Communism. I will do the same thing. — Ted Cruz

Washington is a bubble, and there is nothing more powerful than the conservative grassroots when we are engaged and letting our voice be heard. — Ted Cruz

Hispanic unemployment is higher than the national average and when the federal government is killing small businesses and killing jobs it is hurting the future of the Hispanic community and we need to carry that message. — Ted Cruz

I believe over the long term he's going to have the money, and he's got the message, that this is going to be one of the finalists for the presidential campaign. — Ted Cruz

Millions of people are asking for accountability, for responsibility, for truth from their elected officials, truth about how Obamacare is failing the men and women of America. — Ted Cruz

Under President (George W.) Bush, prosecution of gun crimes was 30 percent higher than it is under President Obama. — Ted Cruz

Carli Fiorina thinks the answer for Social Security and Medicare is ... zero-based budgeting! Christ. People of a certain age are all banging their heads on the table right now. — Ted Cruz

You don't have to solve every problem at once. — Ted Cruz

If Obamacare is so wonderful, why is it that its loudest advocates don't want to be subject to it? — Ted Cruz

When my father came over here penniless with $100 sewn into his underwear, thank God some well-meaning liberal didn't come put his arm around him and say, 'Let me take care of you.' — Ted Cruz

We need to learn from history. These same leaders - [Barack] Obama,[Hillary] Clinton, and far too many Republicans - want to topple [Bashar] Assad. Assad is a bad man. Gadhafi was a bad man. Mubarak had a terrible human rights record. But they were assisting us - at least [Muammar]Gadhafi and[Hosni] Mubarak - in fighting radical Islamic terrorists. — Ted Cruz

The authority to declare war rests in Congress, not in an out-of-control president. — Ted Cruz

Sure, I've listed myself as Cuban-American. That's my heritage and my background. — Ted Cruz

Donald Trump threatened to file a defamation suit against me for running a TV ad that consisted only entirely of his own words on national television. Now, that's really a remarkable theory, that it is defamation to show people what he said on national TV. I think the voters are smarter than that. — Ted Cruz

Marco Rubio was fighting to grant amnesty and not to secure the border, I was fighting to secure the border. And this also goes to trust, listening on to campaign trails. Candidates all the time make promises. You know, Marco said," he learned that the American people didn't trust the federal government." — Ted Cruz

If we topple [Bashar] Assad, the result will be ISIS will take over Syria, and it will worsen U.S. national security interests. — Ted Cruz

It's been federal law for over two centuries that the child of an American born abroad is a citizen - a natural born citizen. — Ted Cruz

I'm very proud to have joined with conservatives in both the Senate and the House to reform how we target bad guys. — Ted Cruz

I've spent the past month in Washington, D.C., and it is terrific to be back in America. — Ted Cruz

I'm not cool enough to hang out with any rock stars. Jay-Z doesn't come over to my house. I don't hang out with Ted Nugent. — Ted Cruz

I am long term optimistic and short term pessimistic on immigration. Long term, I'm optimistic because there's a lotta bipartisan agreement outside of Washington on immigration. There's overwhelming bipartisan agreement, number one, that we need to secure the borders. That we need to finally do something to stop illegal immigration. — Ted Cruz

The State Marriage Defense Act helps safeguard the ability of states to preserve traditional marriage for their citizens. — Ted Cruz

But we don't have a right to force anyone to abandon their faith. It is one of the foundational commitments of who we are as Americans to respect diversity. — Ted Cruz

You can't get to a balanced budget and begin to pay down debt and thus create jobs in this country if you don't have specific plans to make it work. — Ted Cruz

When, President Obama, do you mean to cease abusing our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end to that unbridled audacity of yours swaggering about as it does now? — Ted Cruz

Here at home, we need to do two fundamental things. Number one, we need to recognize that technology has moved on. The Patriot Act was signed in 2001, roughly. The iPhone was invented in 2007. The iPad was invented in 2011. Snapchat and Twitter, all the rest of it, have been around just for several years. Technology has moved on, and the terrorists have moved on with it. — Ted Cruz

As president, I wouldn't be making the day-to-day combat decisions. The job of the commander-in-chief is to lay the objective out and then you rely upon the generals and admirals and commanders to give you their expert advice on the tools needed to carry out that objective. — Ted Cruz

I think Super Tuesday is the most important day of this entire primary election. It is the most delegates awarded in a single night will be awarded on Super Tuesday. — Ted Cruz

There's an old joke that politics is Hollywood for ugly people. An awful lot of the press coverage about Washington reads like coverage of Hollywood. Madonna is having some spat with Sean Penn. Who cares? And who cares which politician is mad at that politician? — Ted Cruz

Listen, if you're a hardworking steelworker or truck driver, that drives down your wages. That takes away your jobs. — Ted Cruz

And that was always our plan. Do well in the first three states, and then compete and have a very strong night on Super Tuesday. I think we're ideally positioned to do exactly that. — Ted Cruz

Preventing people from illegally immigrating to the United States should be the primary purpose of Customs and Border Protection. — Ted Cruz

I think it was absolutely a mistake for President Obama and Harry Reid to force a government shutdown. — Ted Cruz

I do not believe any president can bind a successor president to give up his fundamental role as protector of the country. — Ted Cruz

We're seeing conservatives and evangelicals and libertarian and Reagan Democrats all coming together as one, and that terrifies Washington, D.C. — Ted Cruz

The Washington establishment think Republicans win elections by you don't stand for anything, you keep your head down, you don't rock the boat. You know what? Every time we do that, we get clobbered in the polls. — Ted Cruz

I honored my commitments, and as president, I will honor every commitment that I make to the men and women of this country. — Ted Cruz

America has receded from the world. Today our friends and allies don't trust us. And our enemies don't fear us. I think we should get back, number one, to American leadership in the world. — Ted Cruz

Stopping bad things is a significant public service. — Ted Cruz

Donald [Trump] is a charming person. He can be fun. He can make you laugh.But he can turn on you.And get nasty and personal and vicious. — Ted Cruz

When you're putting together a campaign for president, like I've been, that entails a lot of time. It's not like I've been at the beach sipping a pina colada. — Ted Cruz

We need to focus on radical Islamic terrorists and we need to stop them before they carry out acts of terror. — Ted Cruz

The [Barack] Obama administration wants to take our rights to keep and bear arms away from us. They are trying to take our God, and our gun. And if they do that, they can impose a dictatorship upon us. — Ted Cruz

Any military force should be dictated by the vital national security interests of the United States. And if and when we use force, we should use overwhelming force for a clearly stated objective. And then when we're done, we should get the heck out. — Ted Cruz

I would do anything and I will continue to do anything I can to stop the train wreck that is Obamacare. — Ted Cruz

Over the last years we've seen the consequences of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy. Leading from behind is a disaster. We have abandoned and alienated our friends and allies, and our enemies are stronger. Radical Islam is on the rise, Iran's on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon, China is waging cyber warfare against America. — Ted Cruz

Christians are being systematically exterminated. — Ted Cruz

We need to remain a nation that doesn't just welcome but that celebrates legal immigrants who come here seeking to pursue the American Dream. — Ted Cruz

If you hate the Jewish people, you are not reflecting the teachings of Christ. — Ted Cruz

When Mitt Romney talked about Putin expanding his sphere of influence, Obama mocked and said, 'The Cold War has been over 20 years, nothing to be worried about' ... We keep making that mistake with Putin. — Ted Cruz

I have been proud to fight and stand for religious liberty, to stand against Planned Parenthood, to defend life for my entire career. — Ted Cruz

It used to be, it is accepted scientific wisdom the Earth is flat, and this heretic named Galileo was branded a denier. — Ted Cruz

You always have to be worried about something that is considered a so-called 'scientific theory' that fits every scenario. Climate change, as they've defined it, can never be disproved. — Ted Cruz

The immigrant experience of all of us is what makes us Americans, because we value in our DNA liberty and opportunity above all else. — Ted Cruz

I'm a fighter. I am passionate about what I believe. I've been passionate my whole life about the [American] Constitution. — Ted Cruz

The thing is, is that every terrorist attack we've had since 9/11 has been legal immigration. — Ted Cruz

I think issues and substance, policy and vision and record should be the meat of politics. — Ted Cruz

Obamacare is the nation's biggest job killer and stands in the way of our country's economic growth and prosperity. It should be defunded and repealed. President Obama should hear the pleas from the untold number of Americans who are losing their jobs, wages, and healthcare plans, and Congress should act immediately to stop Obamacare from inflicting any more damage on the country on our hard-working citizens. — Ted Cruz

The hard-core Left loves ridiculing Christians who believe scripture that says, 'God created the heaven and the earth.' They say that it's anti-science to believe that an almighty God would do such a thing. — Ted Cruz

President Reagan stood for conservative principles in a way that brought people together. — Ted Cruz

What I endeavor to do is shine a light on what happens at the court, both as a law clerk and then as a litigator litigating and winning major cases in front of the Supreme Court over and over and over again. — Ted Cruz

The front line with ISIS isn't just in Iraq and Syria, it's in Kennedy Airport and the Rio Grande. Border security is national security. — Ted Cruz

The American free market system is the greatest engine for prosperity and opportunity that the world has ever seen. Freedom works. — Ted Cruz

The very first day that President [Barack] Obama was inaugurated, his first act as a president was to rescind that ban on third-trimester abortions. And he's even carried it further. Now, even if the baby is born alive, they have the right to kill that baby. It is an abomination. — Ted Cruz

In fact, I think we're less safe. We get so distracted by all of the information, we're not spending enough time getting specific immigration - specific information on terrorists. — Ted Cruz

I introduced legislation in the Senate to prohibit President Obama's amnesty. The House of Representatives stood up and led. It took the legislation I introduced and it passed it. But the Senate Democrats stood as one uniform block and said, 'No, we will do nothing to stop amnesty.' — Ted Cruz

Lets us all have an open conversation about what this might mean if [Donald] Trump gets his way or how we might be able to adjust that and make American people safer. — Ted Cruz

The proper way to make policy changes is for you to convince your fellow citizens that there is a better policy outcome than the current one. And then in state legislatures, for those state legislatures to vote that change. — Ted Cruz

There's a real danger when people get distracted by peripheral issues. They get distracted by democracy building. They get distracted about military conflicts. We need to focus on defeating jihadism. — Ted Cruz

What the USA Freedom Act did is it did two things. Number one, it ended the federal government's bulk collection of phone metadata of millions of law-abiding citizens. — Ted Cruz

It is true that I voted against the National Defense Authorization Act, because when I campaigned in Texas I told voters in Texas that I would oppose the federal government having the authority to detain U.S. citizens permanently with no due process. I have repeatedly supported an effort to take that out of that bill, and I honored that campaign commitment. — Ted Cruz

You would carpet bomb where ISIS is, not a city, but the location of the troops. You use air power directed - and you have embedded special forces to direction the air power. But the object isn't to level a city. The object is to kill the ISIS terrorists. — Ted Cruz

What I try to keep an eye on is I don't work for the party bosses in Washington. I work for 26 million Texans. — Ted Cruz

I think every parent was horrified at what happened in Newtown, Conn. — Ted Cruz

My abuela was an incredible cook. — Ted Cruz