Merkley: Cruz ‘Contribution to the Insurrection Is a Major Offense Against the Constitution’

Thursday on MSNBC’s “TheReidOut,” Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) accused Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) of committing a “contribution” to the so-called insurrection earlier this month, which he called a “major offense against the Constitution.”

Anchor Joy Reid asked, “Ted Cruz made an attack on the re-joining of the Paris climate agreement, and it was the equivalent that if you don’t like English muffins, you hate British people. President Biden indicates he is more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris. Didn’t he vote to negate the votes of the people of Pittsburgh in the election in, but I’ll leave the final thoughts on that to you.”

Merkley said, “Joy, you are so right. When I heard this, I thought this from the man who led the effort to burn the ballots of the people of Pittsburgh just last week, and not to mention that the city elects a climate champion as mayor time and again. He just won the award last month for being the best mayor in the country to take on climate change. So the last person who should talk about the citizens of Pennsylvania or the citizens of Pittsburg is Ted Cruz, who wanted to deprive them of a fundamental right to have a voice in the election of a president.”

Reid asked, “Do you think he should be expelled? I was surprised to see him show up on the inauguration, given what he did. Is he someone that you would like to see expelled from the Senate?”

Merkley said, “There were two insurrections. There was an insurrection outside the building and an insurrection inside the building, and they work closely in the same effort. The insurrection inside the building was worse in a way because they were affirming the mega lie that Trump told to the nation. It is like somebody being a close ally of McCarthy and a false lie of destroying people’s careers over communism. This was an effort to support the big lie that the election was not won by Joe Biden. I think that effort and that contribution to the insurrection is a major offense against the Constitution, and we should have those hearings and explore those issues of censorship or expulsion.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN