Exclusive — Ted Cruz: Hillary Clinton ‘Embodies The Culture Of Corruption In Washington’

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a 2016 GOP presidential candidate, hammered former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a Democratic presidential candidate, in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News—zeroing in on the new developments of the forthcoming Peter Schweizer “Clinton Cash” book.

“The latest scandal regarding Hillary Clinton is stunning in the breadth of the allegations and at the same time I’m not surprised because it is consistent with a pattern we’ve seen for many decades,” Cruz said.

Hillary Clinton embodies the culture of corruption in Washington, where politicians enrich themselves and expand their own power—Washington only gets more and more powerful—and the lives of hardworking Americans get harder and harder and harder. Of course, Hillary Clinton and the Clinton Foundation should return the money they received from foreign nations particularly when she was Secretary of State.

The idea that the chief diplomatic officer of the United States is open for business and foreign nations, foreign businesses and foreign citizens can write checks for hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars both to her foundation or to her husband for speeches, which goes directly to her personal bank account, reflects a degree of corruption unprecedented in American politics.

Several reports this week have revealed new details about the Clintons’ close proximity to the Uranium One deal—and how Russia has acquired sizable percentages of U.S. uranium mines. It’s all closely connected with Clinton’s Foundation, and her husband’s speaking fees.

“It should not have been done,” Cruz said.

That she thought it was acceptable to effectively be on the payroll of foreign nations while she was ostensibly representing the United States of America reveals just how corrupt the culture in Washington has become. And I’ll make a final point—of course, Senate Democrats are circling the wagons around her. Apparently, in their view, it’s perfectly fine for the Secretary of State to be on direct deposit from major foreign interests.

Every Senate Democrat should be forced to answer the question: Is it okay for the Secretary of State to receive millions of dollars from foreign nations both through a charitable foundation and into her personal bank account through checks written directly to her husband for brief speeches that yielded $500,000 a pop?

Cruz’s interview with Breitbart News comes about a month into his presidential campaign. He was the first candidate to announce his candidacy, and he’s proven to the entire Washington establishment that he’s an absolutely credible candidate for the White House—and can win—no matter what the media says.

“It’s been just over four weeks since we announced our campaign and the response has been overwhelming,” Cruz said.

Heidi and I barnstormed Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and just about every event has been standing room only. The local press repeatedly reported that the crowds coming out were markedly larger—sometimes even double the size—we’re seeing for other candidates. The passionate enthusiasm we’re seeing in the grassroots is tremendously encouraging. Then on the financial side we had set the goal that in the first week of the campaign we’d raise $1 million, which we thought was a bold and audacious goal.

We ended up blowing past that. Instead of raising $1 million in one week, we raised a million dollars in one day. In 72 hours we’d raised $2 million and by the end of a week we’d raised over $4 million, which consisted of over 51,000 contributions from all 50 states—95 percent of the contributions were of $100 or less and that is the most raised in the opening week of a campaign by any Republican candidate in modern history.

Cruz is in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Friday to speak to the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC)—which has been dubbed the “Sheldon Adelson primary” by Politico because it’s a chance for GOP hopefuls like Cruz to convince several big donors, including Adelson, that they are the winning candidate for 2016.

“It’s tremendously encouraging and a powerful demonstration that the grassroots and the American people are hungry for a leader who will simply tell them the truth and do what he said he was going to do,” Cruz said.

Today, I’m in Las Vegas for the Republican Jewish Coalition meeting—addressing the group and visiting with a number of the leaders here. We’ll be focused primarily on the need for economic growth and job opportunities, on the need to defend our Constitutional rights and especially on foreign policy challenges facing America today because of the manifest failure of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy. Today, our friends and allies no longer trust us and our enemies do not fear us. All across the country, Americans are ready for that to change. Americans are ready for us to restore American leadership in the world.

Tomorrow, on Saturday, Cruz will be in Iowa for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Summit. Other parts of Cruz’s interview with Breitbart News, which are forthcoming soon, included his thoughts on the GOP establishment cave to confirm Loretta Lynch as Attorney General and the recent New York Times hit piece against him on gay marriage.