Fox News "Hannity" - Transcript: Ted Cruz blasts the Supreme Court's 'damaging decisions'

Interview

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SEAN HANNITY: Welcome to "Hannity." Tonight, the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have issued a warning for Americans and law enforcement to be extra-vigilant on high alert for an ISIS-related attack around the upcoming 4th of July holiday weekend. And we're going to have a full report on that later in the program.

But first, after two huge rulings from the Supreme Court last week, one on ObamaCare, the other on same-sex marriage, where do conservatives go from here?

Now, here's how some of the 2016 Republican presidential candidates have been responding. Take a look.

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SEN. MARCO RUBIO, R-FLA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I disagree with their decision. I believe ObamaCare is bad for Americans, bad for the country.

MIKE HUCKABEE, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Judicial tyranny is when we believe that the courts have a right to bypass the process of law. And we've really seen it this week in two cases.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you calling for civil disobedience?

HUCKABEE: I don't think a lot of pastors and Christian schools are going to have a choice.

GOV. BOBBY JINDAL, R-LA., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I strongly disagree with the court's ruling. According to Chief Justice Roberts, they weren't even reading -- this has nothing to do with the Constitution. But of course, we're going to comply with a court order.

RICK SANTORUM, R-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to reclaim marriage as an institution that's not about two adults or more adults, that it's children.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

HANNITY: Joining us now with reaction, the author of a brand-new book, "A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America," 2016 Republican presidential candidate Texas senator Ted Cruz. Senator, good to see you. How are you, sir?

SEN. TED CRUZ, R-TEXAS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Sean, always great to be with you.

HANNITY: These are two huge decisions. In the gay marriage decision, we have a Supreme Court justice by the name of Antonin Scalia -- I read both of his dissents, two days in a row. I thought they were fabulous. But he said, "I write separately to call attention to this court's threat to American democracy." A Supreme Court justice wrote that!

CRUZ: (INAUDIBLE) last week, Thursday and Friday, those two decisions are two of the most damaging decisions in the history of the United States Supreme Court. On Thursday, a majority of the justices violated federal law, rewrote ObamaCare in order to force that failed law on millions of Americans.

And you know, to use John Roberts's famous analogy, they stopped being umpires. They stopped calling balls and strikes, and they put on a jersey, an Obama bright blue jersey, and joined a team forcing that failed law on Americans.

And then on Friday, the marriage decision was directly contrary to the Constitution. It was, as Justice Scalia observed, five unelected judges saying their liberal policy views trump the considered judgment of 320 million Americans. It was judicial activism at its worst!

HANNITY: How many times have you argued before the Supreme Court?

CRUZ: Nine times.

HANNITY: Nine -- all right. So I'm looking at both these cases. In the 2012 case on ObamaCare, the Obama administration was not even arguing that the mandate was a tax. And the Supreme Court made it up whole cloth!

CRUZ: Yes.

HANNITY: In this particular take (ph), they talk about state exchanges.

CRUZ: Yes.

HANNITY: And Justice Scalia says we might as well call it "SCOTUS care"...

CRUZ: Right.

HANNITY: ... because the clear language in the law talked about state exchanges.

So what does that mean for the American people, when you have nine unelected lifetime appointees that can impact America in this -- such a profound way?

CRUZ: It is profoundly dangerous to our Constitution and our democracy. They are making it up, and these are political decisions. This is lawless and it's unconstitutional.

HANNITY: What is the recourse?

CRUZ: Well, I think there are a couple of consequences. On ObamaCare, I think as a result of that decision, that makes 2016 a referendum on repealing ObamaCare.

And if a 2016 presidential candidate isn't prepared to fight every day to repeal every word of ObamaCare, to lead the fight and campaign on it, he or she should get out of the way!

HANNITY: Senator, hang on a second. Every Republican like you promised to repeal and replace ObamaCare. Now, they voted symbolically 50 times.

CRUZ: Right. Right.

HANNITY: But they also -- Congress has constitutionally the power of the purse.

CRUZ: Yes. Yes.

HANNITY: You were the only one willing to use it, and you were excoriated by your own party!

CRUZ: Look, Sean, you're right. That's one of the things I talk about in the book, "A Time for Truth," which comes out tomorrow. I talk about what's going on inside the United States Senate, behind closed doors, the closed room dealings, the corruption, what I call the Washington cartel, which is career politicians, Republicans and Democrats, who get in bed with lobbyists and giant corporations.

And you notice whoever is in power, government gets bigger and bigger. The debt grows more and more and our liberty recedes more and more.

The sad reality, both of the decisions last week on ObamaCare and gay marriage, there were a lot of Republicans who put out statements mildly critical who were privately celebrating and popping champagne because the Washington cartel agrees with those decisions!

HANNITY: What would you do then -- what -- you're not going to impeach a Supreme Court justice, are you?

CRUZ: So I've called for -- well, the framers thought that would be the check, impeachment. So in the Federalist Papers, they talk about the response to judicial tyranny is impeachment. Unfortunately, we've seen -- Thomas Jefferson said that even within the first couple of decades, impeachment had become not even a scarecrow for the Supreme Court.

And listen, any Senate that can't muster 50 votes to defeat Loretta Lynch, who told us she will be a lawless attorney general -- there's no way on earth they're going to muster 67 votes to remove Anthony Kennedy from office.

And so what I've called for is several things. Number one, on marriage. I've introduced a constitutional amendment to preserve the authority of the states to define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Number two, I've introduced legislation stripping the federal courts of jurisdiction over attacks (ph) on marriage. The Constitution gives that to Congress as a check and balance.

But number three, actually, on your radio show last week, I called for a constitutional amendment putting in place periodic judicial retention elections such that the people...

HANNITY: Twenty states have to do this, right?

CRUZ: That's exactly right. Twenty states have it in effect. So for example, in California, 1986, the people of California recalled several Supreme Court justices that had refused to implement capital punishment. In Iowa in 2010, they recalled three Supreme Court justices who had violated the Iowa constitution by mandating gay marriage.

HANNITY: You were once the attorney general of Texas. The current attorney general says clerks can refuse same-sex marriage. Do you agree with that? And also, do you agree with Justice Thomas in his dissent that says there's a coming battle between religious liberty and freedom? In other words, churches -- will they be forced to perform gay marriage or risk -- what, being closed down?

CRUZ: Absolutely, yes.

HANNITY: That's chilling.

CRUZ: And I will say this. One of the things I detail in the book, "A Time for Truth," is that religious liberty for me has been a battle that I've been leading the fight in for two decades. When I was the solicitor general of Texas, we defended the 10 Commandments monument on state Capitol grounds.

HANNITY: Did I say attorney general? I apologize.

CRUZ: Oh, you promoted me, but that -- that's all right.

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: Let me ask you this about the book. You tell a story, and there's an ongoing back-and-forth with you and Karl Rove in the book. You had gotten the support and endorsement of Bush 41, George Herbert Walker Bush.

CRUZ: Yes. Yes.

HANNITY: And why don't you tell the story and what -- how -- your response to the fallout of this.

CRUZ: Well, George Herbert Walker Bush had very generously and unexpectedly given a thousand dollar check in support of my campaign for attorney general in 2009. And I was elated. I told my wife, Heidi, how thrilled I was.

A few days later, Karl Rove called me on my cell phone and was berating and yelling and cursing at me. It turns out that he was trying to raise money for the Bush 43 library in Dallas. And a number of the big donors in Dallas were supporting another person, a state rep, who was planning on running for that same office.

And so Karl was yelling at me. And I responded, I said, Karl, look, I was just doing what you suggested when I asked your advice, going and seeking support. He said, Well, you weren't supposed to get 41's. And sadly, he made a comment -- he said -- he said -- he said, Besides, he's too old to have good judgment anymore.

And it was a hurtful comment. It was wrong. Having spent four-and-a- half hours with him, it was categorically false.

HANNITY: He denies that this happened.

CRUZ: Well, he does, and he put out a statement last night claiming that he never said that. He never said anything about raising money for the Bush library. He was never focused on supporting a state rep in Dallas.

And sadly, Karl's statement is just flat-out false. Last night, I released a series of e-mails where Karl in writing, in e-mail he signed, lays out that it was all about big money for the Bush library.

And I'll tell you, Heidi, my wife, who you know -- when I hung up the phone, it was the maddest she's ever been. She looked at me and said, You know, this is what's wrong with the Republican Party. The attorney general of Texas should not depend on who the donors are to the Bush library. And it's that kind of story that I have in that book, "A Time for Truth." It's what's going on behind the scenes.

HANNITY: And you're just naming names and you're picking battles with him (ph) telling the truth. Let me ask you this. You say -- this is your book right here, "A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America." Debt, Putin, China, Iran, Middle East, you really think you're able to put this thing back together if you become president?

CRUZ: Absolutely, yes. And I think the key -- we've got to break the Washington cartel. And how do you do that? Number one, you look at the 2016 candidates. I think one of the most important questions is, When have you ever stood up to the Washington cartel? It's easy to say you're standing up to Democrats or Obama, but when have you stood up to Republicans in your own party?

Now, it's interesting. There are some in the field that could say, Well, I supported amnesty. Well, you know, when you attack Republicans from the left, the mainstream media lionizes you as a bipartisan statesman. But when have you stood with the people, with Constitution, with freedom? And when have you been excoriated by Democrats, Republicans and the mainstream media?

HANNITY: I got to be honest, I have real disappointment in Republicans on two issues. Number one, they said they would de-fund Obama's executive order. They didn't do it.

CRUZ: Yes.

HANNITY: They went along with "cromnibus," made promises. And the other thing is, you know, on repealing or replacing ObamaCare, they didn't use their constitutional power. That's disappointing.

Senator, we got to run. Good to see you. It's called "A Time for Truth: Reigniting the Promise of America."

(CROSSTALK)

CRUZ: God bless. And I'll tell you, we've had 100,000 people coming to TedCruz.org, supporting us. Tomorrow night at midnight...

(CROSSTALK)

HANNITY: ... $40 million, is that true?

CRUZ: It has been incredible. Over 100,000 courageous...

HANNITY: More than Hillary.

CRUZ: It is stunning! And it's because people are tired of politicians not telling the truth. They want someone who will do what he said he would do. I would ask your viewers, come to TedCruz.org. Support us before midnight Tuesday, June 30th.

HANNITY: Good to see you, Senator. We'll see you on the campaign trail. Thank you.

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