Transcript of Sen. Ted Cruz on tariffs, Ukraine and midair scares

Joining us now is the Chair of the Transportation and Commerce Committee, Senator Ted Cruz. Senator, thanks so much for joining us.

Great to be with you.

We have a lot to dive into, so let's get right at it. First, tariffs with our two allies, Mexico and Canada, are set to take effect. You saw the impact on the stock market. Are you worried at a time when the price of basic goods like eggs continue to skyrocket, that this may mean higher prices for Americans?

Well, listen, President Trump uses tariffs and the threats of tariffs for multiple different purposes. And one One of the purposes that he uses them for is his leverage to incentivize other countries to do things that are in America's interest. What he has laid out with respect to Mexico and Canada is these tariffs as leverage to cause them to do even more to help secure our border and to stop the illegal immigration that we've seen and the fentanyl that has been flooding into this country. I got to say, in that regard, I enthusiastically support what the President is doing. We have had for four years a national security and a public safety crisis at our border, 12 million illegal immigrants. I support using every tool the President has to secure the border, to keep our family safe, and to stop the over 100,000 Americans that are dying each year from drug overdoses. It's truly a crisis.

Yet, industry leaders, Senator, we just heard from the automobile industry's leaders, Ford CEO, saying that long term, a 25% terrace across the Mexico and Canada borders would blow a a hole in the US industry that we've never seen, he said. He's not the only one, of course, concerned. Does the President need to walk some of these tariff threats back?

Well, listen, my hope is that these tariffs and tariff threats are leveraged that will incentivize Mexico and Canada to do much more to secure our border. That would be a good outcome for Texas and America. Texas does a massive amount of trade with Mexico and a massive amount of trade with Canada.

I don't want to see tariffs go into effect, particularly not for an extended period of time against Mexico and Canada because that would have harmful impacts on the Texas economy.

My hope is this will prove to be what it proved to be during Trump's first term. During Trump's first term, he threatened 25% tariffs against Mexico unless Mexico helped us secure the border, that produced the Remain in Mexico Agreement that resulted in the lowest rate of illegal immigration in 45 years. My hope is these tariffs against Mexico and Canada are leveraged to secure our border and not an ongoing economic policy.

Let's broaden the lens a little bit. In a recent episode of your podcast, The Verdict with Ted Cruz, you said, My view is America first, which means, I want our allies to be strong and I want our enemies to be weak. And yet, some foreign policy observers express disappointment that so few Republicans have criticized what happened in the Oval Office on Friday with regard to President Yeltsin. I mean, not Yeltsin, sorry, President Zelenskyy.

Well, listen, I've done two entire on Verdict, devoted to what happened with President Zelinski in the Oval Office. I have to say, I think President Zelinski behaved abominably. This will go down in history as the most disastrous Oval Office meeting that has ever happened. President Zelensky came in and decided, apparently, it was a good strategy to attack President Trump, to pick a fight with President Trump. I think that was a serious mistake. I think it was a catastrophic mistake. It's a mistake. I think it did real damage to Ukraine by doing that. In my view, we had an election in November. It was very clear that President Trump was campaigning on ending the war in Ukraine. I believe the war in Ukraine was caused by Joe Biden's weakness and his appeasement. But I think the war has gone on long enough, and President Trump was very clear this war should come to an end. I'll tell you, Juju, what I have urge President Trump is that the war in Ukraine should come to an end, but it come to an end in a way that is a clear and unequivocal loss for Russia and loss for Putin.

Russia is not our friend. Putin is not our friend. I believe it's important that the end of this war be a clear loss for Russia.

That's a clear declaration. Let me turn the chapter a little bit. First Lady Melania Trump was on Capitol Hill today for her first solo appearance. She was there in support of the Bipartisan Take It Down Act. You are one of the bill's sponsors. The bill protects victims of non-consensual sharing of sexual images, including those created by AI or deep fake. Do you anticipate this bill getting through?

I do. This is legislation that I authored. I teamed up with Amy Klobechar, Democrat from Minnesota. It's bipartisan legislation. It's designed to protect women, to protect young girls who more and more are becoming victims of non-consensual, intimate images, both real images, and also we're seeing the growing proliferation of deep fakes, of using AI technology that is targeting women and young girls, and sometimes young boys as well. My legislation, the Take It Down Act, makes it a crime to distribute non-consensual, intimate images, whether real or created through deep fake AI. It also puts a legal obligation on tech platforms to take down that content once they're notified by the victim. My legislation has already passed the Senate unanimously, 100 to nothing. So all the Republicans came all the Democrats came together. Today, as you noted, the first lady, Melania Trump, came to the Capitol, urging Congress to pass my legislation. We had at the roundtable that I hosted the speaker of the House, the House Majority Leader. They committed the House is going to We'll make it up. I believe we're going to pass it, and we'll put it on President Trump's desk and get it signed into law because it is critical that we protect the victims of these incredible abuses of privacy and violations of their fundamental rights.

Lastly, before I let you go, Senator, let Let me have you put your Transportation Committee hat on. Americans are wondering, is it safe to fly? What do you think about all these close calls? Are you concerned about a lack of staff at the FAA, and specifically with air traffic controllers?

Let me start with your opening question. Is it safe to fly? Yes. Flying remains the safest way to travel in America. You are more likely to be killed driving to the airport than you are flying on a commercial airline flight. Now, that being said, the horrific crash outside DC, Reagan Airport just a few weeks ago was the worst civil aviation accident in decades, and 77 lives were lost that evening. It obviously necessitates a careful examination by the NTSB of what exactly happened. It's clear there were multiple catastrophic failures that occurred that night. I think the NTSB does a thorough investigation based on the evidence. But one thing that is very clear, I believe we need to modernize our air traffic control system. Currently, our air traffic control system uses technology from the 1950s and 1960s. You literally have controllers that are using radar and little slips of paper and using computers that have floppy disks. I'll tell you, if you ask your kids what's a floppy disk, they will have no idea. It makes no sense that we do not have up to date technology for air traffic control using GPS and the most advanced computer systems.

I've been leading the fight for over a decade to modernize our air traffic control, and I hope that this horrific and catastrophic accident will become an impetus for Republicans and Democrats to come together and say, We're going to get this done because we've got to ensure that we're keeping the flying public safe.

Senator Deteg Cruz, thanks for your time. I'm sorry to say we ran out quickly. Thank you.

Thank you.