Ted Cruz Struggles to Defend Election Fraud Claims on CNN

Donald Trump has already refused to commit to accepting the results of the 2024 election, and that he’s prepared to “fight” an outcome he doesn’t feel is “honest.” For his Republican allies,  those are their marching orders, and on Wednesday night Ted Cruz struggled to avoid making his own commitment to supporting the peaceful transfer of power, and accept November’s results.

In an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, the Texas senator was asked directly if he would certify the election results, regardless of who wins. He scrambled to avoid the question, accusing Collins of not asking the same thing to Democrats.

“Kaitlan, I’ve got to say I think that’s actually a ridiculous question,” Cruz said. It’s not a question — you ever ask a Democrat that?”

Collins countered that the Democrats had not had a sitting president who “refused to facilitate the peaceful transfer of power.”

Cruz argued that “we did have a peaceful transfer power, I was there on January 20, I was there at the swearing in.”

“Barely,” Collins added, referencing the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that attempted to undermine the certification of President Joe Biden’s election.

Cruz and Collins continued to spar over the history of challenges to election outcomes in the United States. Cruz raised backlash to Trump’s 2016 election, when several Democratic House members attempted to object to the certification of the Electoral College vote.

“And what happened in 2016?” Collins responded, “Because I remember a guy named Joe Biden who was vice president, and he went to the Senate floor and certified the votes.”

Cruz continued to insist that there had been fraud in the 2020 election — despite widespread findings that isolated instances of voter misconduct did not amount to a widespread scheme of electoral fraud capable of changing the result of the vote. When Collins said any fraud that may have occurred was so insignificant that it wouldn’t have affected the election results, Cruz didn’t seem to care, instead insisting the idea there was no widespread fraud was a product of the media.

“It wasn’t the media, it was the attorney general,” Collins said, referring to Attorney General Bill Barr’s contention that the election was legitimate.

After much waffling from the senator, and a refusal to commit to accepting the election results, Collins ended the interview.

“Senator Ted Cruz, we’re out of time,” Collins said.

More from Rolling Stone

• Ted Cruz Called Automatic Airline Refunds a 'Dumb Idea.' Senators Disagreed

• Ted Cruz Wants Airlines to Keep Your Cash When They Cancel Your Flight

• Ted Cruz Hit With FEC Complaint Over Podcast Company Sending Money to PAC

Best of Rolling Stone

• The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign

• Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal

• The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence