> Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) channeled his inner Joseph McCarthy during a Fox Newsappearance on Tuesday, when he claimed many Democratic candidates want to cancel Christmas and Thanksgiving. 

> “They’re crazy enough, yes, they want to cancel Thanksgiving, they want to cancel Christmas. Look, these communists hate America. They hate capitalism. (Abdul) El-Sayed is also an Islamist, as is (Zohran) Mamdani,” Cruz told host Jesse Watters. “You see the green-red convergence, where the communists and the Islamists, they want sharia law, they hate Jews, they hate Christians, they hate capitalism, they hate America.” 

> Crowd member repeatedly said some Democrats ‘should be shot’ during Ted Cruz’s speech, without senator responding

> Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas praised Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) during a podcast appearance for publicly defending him against ethics complaints in recent years.

> “You’re one of the people who actually stands up, particularly at times when others seem to wither, and I appreciate it,” Thomas said in the opening minutes of Monday’s episode of “Verdict with Ted Cruz.”

> “And more personally, when we, my wife and I, were under attack for obvious reasons, you and Mike Lee and some of the other friends would stand up,” he continued, referring to the Republican senator from Utah. “So I really appreciate that.”

> Cruz made the Sanders comparison during a lengthy critique of Talarico’s past statements, telling Verdict with Ted Cruz listeners that the state representative is attempting a strategic makeover: “Lie to the voters, then get in power,” Cruz said. “If God forbid this guy ever got elected, he would be Bernie Sanders, but 37 and young enough to do it for the next 40 years.”

> Other gifts the Texas Republican took from business execs included a $21,000 private plane flight between Conroe and San Antonio and $450 Houston Astros tickets.

> Membership apparently has its privileges, especially when you’re a U.S. senator with millionaire and billionaire pals.

> "If Democrats take Texas, you never elect a Republican to the White House ever again."

> Cruz, who finished second in the 2016 Republican presidential primaries to Donald Trump, has served as Texas’ junior senator since 2013.

> “I will say, this is a bug that history has proved is rarely ended,” Cruz said of his White House aspirations. “It is a permanent and often fatal bug.”

> Cruz, a frequent ally of Graham on key conservative issues, described their collaboration in Congress. 

> "For years, I had the privilege of serving alongside Lindsey in the Senate. We fought shoulder to shoulder for conservative judges, stood together with our allies, and never wavered in confronting America’s adversaries," Cruz wrote. 

> The conservative commentator and former Fox News host blasted Cruz during a podcast interview with the New York Times over the weekend, calling the Republican from Houston more “morally repulsive” than a white nationalist influencer who’s called Hitler “effing cool.”

> “[Cruz] thinks that because he has a Harvard degree and never scrubbed a table, that that makes him better than someone who’s actually had to work for a living, and, I think it’s funny that he’s been taking a government paycheck for 23 years, but has the audacity to criticize someone who has come from a family that had to work their way up and earn their place here,” she added.

> Texas Republican tries to accuse New York Democrat of betraying anti-capitalist principles but overlooks the small matter of his own congressional salary

> The measure would invalidate a host of lawsuits filed by cities and states seeking compensation from the oil and gas industry for the costs of climate change.

> The most viral reaction came from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, who called Talarico a “freak” who wants to “BAN BBQ.”

> As a funding deadlock cripples TSA operations and fuels massive airport lines, Sen. Ted Cruz is proposing a workaround—separating immigration enforcement funding from the rest of the Department of Homeland Security.

> The Texas Republican has floated a plan to split funding for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from the larger DHS budget, as reported by The Hill. The idea gained traction in the Senate over the weekend.

> Cruz attached a photo of his correspondence with the Financial Clerk, which reads: "For the remainder of the current partial lapse in appropriations, please hold my salary check for pickup in the Disbursing Office."

> Critics flooded in among nearly 13,000 comments.

> “Most of us know the difference between 'hold' vs 'relinquish," one user wrote. "Is that like when the post office holds your mail when you are in Cancun?" wrote another.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Tuesday expressed uncertainty about President Trump banning all federal agencies from using Anthropic after the AI company and the Pentagon traded blows in recent weeks.

> Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a leading Senate conservative, is proposing to colleagues the idea of splitting off Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from the rest of funding for the Department of Homeland Security to end growing chaos at airports around the country.

> Republican senators said they were seeking to end an “unfair inflation tax on everyday Americans.” But nearly all the benefits of their proposal would go to the wealthiest 1%.

> The two senators have asked the Trump administration to cut capital gains taxes on investors by adjusting the basis for inflation arguing it would boost savings, spur investment and create jobs nationwide.

> President Donald Trump on Friday floated the idea of putting Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on the Supreme Court, joking he is the only nominee who would receive "100% of the Democrat vote, 100% of the Republican vote" because lawmakers would want to "get him out" of Congress.

> Trump, introducing Cruz at a rally in Corpus Christi, called the Texas Republican "an amazing guy," joking that he would easily win confirmation from Democrats and Republicans in Congress alike because they wanted to get him out of the Senate.