On Sunday’s broadcast of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that he believed Ukraine “blatantly interfered” in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
Cruz said, “Any president, any administration is justified in investigating corruption. There was serious evidence of real corruption concerning Hunter Biden. [He] was on the board of Burisma, the largest natural gas company in Ukraine. Do you know how much he was paid every month? $83,000 — that’s a million dollars a year.”
He continued, “The media ought to care if there is actual corruption. A million dollars a year, you know how much he makes serving on Exxon Mobil. You get $110,000 a year. Do you think Hunter Biden with zero experience justifies making ten times as much as the board member of Exxon Mobil?”
Host Chuck Todd asked, “Do you believe Ukraine meddled in the American election in 2016?”
Cruz said, “I do. And I think there is considerable evidence.”
Todd said, “This sort of strikes me as odd because you went through a primary campaign with this president. He launched a birther-ism campaign against you. He went after your faith, threatened to quote spill the beans about your wife about something. He pushed a National Enquirer story which we now know he had a real relationship—”
Cruz interjected, “I appreciate you are dragging up all that garbage, that’s very kind of you.”
Todd continued, “Is it not possible that this president is capable of creating a false narrative about somebody in order to help him politically?”
Cruz shot back, “Ha, ha, ha. Except that’s not what happened. The president released the transcript of the phone call. You can read what was said in the phone call.”
He continued, “On the evidence, Russia clearly interfered in our election, but here’s the game the media is playing because Russia interfered, the media pretends nobody else did. Ukraine blatantly interfered in our election. The sitting ambassador from Ukraine wrote an op-ed blasting Donald Trump during the election season.”
Cruz added, “I understand that you want to dismiss Ukrainian interference because they were trying to get Hillary Clinton elected, which is what the vast majority of the media wanted anyway.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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