Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) discussed on “Life, Liberty & Levin” a faction of right-wing commentators “spreading” anti-Israel rhetoric and hostility toward Jews. Cruz warned the trend poses a serious threat to both the Republican Party and the country

MARK LEVIN, HOST: Welcome back, America. We’re here with Mr. Conservative, as I call him, of the U.S. Senate, Senator Ted Cruz. He is on the Foreign Relations Committee, but he’s more than that. He has become a voice for the moral imperative in this country, both in terms of war and peace and in terms of human dignity. Let me ask you something, Ted. I’ve known you a very, very long time. You are really disgusted with what you see in terms of this isolationist, woke, right sort of neofascist movement of the 1930s and you’ve come out both guns blasting against this antisemitism and Jew hatred and, quite frankly, the trashing of Christians and Christians who believe in the Holy Land. What is motivating you? SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Truth, saving the country, saving our party. Listen, it was a decade ago that antisemitism really reared its ugly head in the Democratic Party and the Democrat leaders ignored it. They looked the other way. They just hoped magically it would disappear, and it has now almost entirely consumed the Democratic Party. There is a very real pro-Hamas wing of the Democratic Party in Congress and the remainder of the Democrats, look, some of my Democrat colleagues don’t like that, but they’re terrified of those guys. That’s where the energy is in the party, that’s where the money is in the party. That’s where the young people are in the party. And look, it’s easy for you and me to make that point about the Democrats, that’s the other side, but what we’ve seen in the last 18 months on the Republican side, I think is terrifying. Now, I’ve seen more antisemitism on the right in the last 18 months than at any time in my life, and it is growing, and there are a handful of loud mouths, of self-appointed influencers that are driving it, and I believe many of them are being paid. I think they’re being paid by Qatar. I think they’re being paid by foreign nations, and they are spreading, number one, hatred of Israel. Number two, hatred of Jews, writ large. Number three, they are embracing and apologizing the Islamist enemies of America. They are embracing Hamas. They’re embracing Iran, and they’re attacking Donald Trump for standing up and acting decisively to take out Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities, for bombing Iran now to take out their ability to kill more Americans, and it is doing real damage. And in my view, this threat is literally an existential threat. And the reason I say that is because antisemitism is the gateway to anti-capitalism and anti-Americanism. You quickly go down that slippery slope. Mamdani — Comrade Mamdani in New York is a perfect example of that Green Red Alliance, how the Islamists and the Marxists come together. They hate the same people, and it is dangerous and I don’t want to wake up in five years and find ourselves living in a country where both major political parties are unambiguously anti-Israel and unapologetically antisemitic. And I think if we don’t stand up and fight it and call it out by name and defeat it, we could lose our whole country. LEVIN: We’ll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK) LEVIN: Welcome back, America. Ted Cruz, as to your point at the end of the last segment, you can see how this already, this poison is spreading throughout our country, and the targeting that’s going on in Jewish facilities, but it’s also now churches, it is ROTC and so forth and so on. This spreading that you’re talking about, no? CRUZ: Absolutely. We have seen four terror attacks in the last 10 days, all from radical Islamic terrorists, all directed at America. I’ve got to say, it is shocking at a time when we’ve got a higher risk of terror attacks than any time in decades that Democrats keep voting to shut down the Department of Homeland Security. DHS was formed to stop terror attacks. It was formed after 9/11. These four terror attacks, we could see today, tomorrow, the next day, a major terror attack that killed hundreds or even thousands of Americans, and yet, just two days ago, every single Democrat but one voted to cut off the funding for the Department of Homeland Security. We’re asking DHS to go into work with no paycheck. That’s endangering America, and it’s a sign of the radicalism we’ve got. LEVIN: It’s horrendous. They’re literally defunding our security while the greatest spreader of terrorism in attacking Americans has its back against the wall. It’s such an irresponsible party, and they think they’re going to get away with blaming Republicans who keep bringing it up to get voted on and funded. Before you go, I want to ask you about the SAVE AMERICA Act. What is the status of that and what in the world is going on? CRUZ: Look, we’re going to be voting on it next week in the Senate, we need to pass the SAVE AMERICA Act. I am leading the fight along with Mike Lee to pass it in the Senate. The Democrats are dug in. They do not want proof of U.S. citizenship to vote because they want illegals to vote, and they do not want photo I.D. to vote because they want people to vote illegally. That is their plan to win elections, it is illegal votes, it is why they opened the borders and let 12 million people into this country, including terrorists who are at risk of committing acts of terror right now. Now, the Democrats are going to do everything they can to stop it, and what I’m urging my colleagues in the Senate to do is let’s care about it as much as they do. Let’s actually stand and fight. And the Democrats say they’re filibustering, but they’re not filibustering. Filibustering is, we all remember Jimmy Stewart and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. It’s standing and talking and talking and talking. We’re not making the Democrats do that. In 2013 against Obamacare, I filibustered for 21 hours. We’re not making the Democrats do that. We just let them raise a finger and go, I filibuster. Well, no, let’s use the Senate rules make them fight and make them talk. There’s a Senate rule that limits every senator to two speeches on a single topic. You know what? They’ve got 47 of them. Let’s see if 47 of them can give two speeches and when they can’t stand anymore, when they can’t talk anymore, when we’ve gone night after night after night and have worn them down and made the case to the American people, then we should pass the SAVE AMERICA Act. We’ve got the opportunity to do it. If we can get 50 Republican senators to stand together and say, we are going to do everything possible to save America. LEVIN: So well put, and I’ll tell you something else. It’s an opportunity for the Republican Party to make the case over and over and over again and to make the case on any everything that they’re defunding our national security, that they’re undermining our commander-in-chief and our Armed Forces. I would think Republicans have a whole lot to say right in front of the midterm elections about the party opposite and their policies and what they’re doing to the country, no? CRUZ: I think that’s exactly right. There’s some of my colleagues that are scared. They say we can’t win this fight, and if we lose, it will hurt us with turnout. I’ll tell you what? I’m telling them, Mark, you want to hurt us with turnout. Don’t even fight. Let’s stand and fight with everything we’ve got. And if, after weeks or months, we collapse from the fight, maybe we get it done, maybe we don’t, but people will show up for someone who is fighting for them, for someone who’s committed to the battle. If we’re not even willing to try, you can understand why people stay home. Don’t let that happen. Let’s show that we care as much as President Trump cares. President Trump is leaning in with the full force of his presidency, and I think in the Senate, we need to lean in as well. LEVIN: I would say to those Republicans in the Senate who think this is a bad idea, let me tell you something. If you want to run for re-election, it’s going to be a very bad idea for you if you don’t start fighting for the voter in America. Senator Ted Cruz, God bless you, my friend. Be safe. Take care of yourself. CRUZ: Thank you, Mark.

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