Sen. Ted Cruz (TX-R) appeared in an interview today with Fox Business in which he discussed Texas’ repealed mask mandate, the need to re-open schools, the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill, and border security.

In response to state Governor Greg Abbott’s announced termination of Texas’ statewide mask mandate, Cruz commented: “I think it’s great news. I think Texans are ready to get back to work. Texans are eager to get back to work. I think as we look across the country, the lockdowns have proven to be a serious mistake. And then they hurt millions of people. They destroyed lives. They destroyed small businesses. And people are ready to get to work.”

The Texas Senator went on to blast Democrats over continued school closures, citing data to evidence the long-term educational harm. Emphasizing the disproportionate impact on African-American and Hispanic children, Cruz accused Democrats of prioritizing teachers’ union bosses over the well-being of students and teachers. The CDC has recently developed guidance for strict mitigation strategies to help protect students, teachers, and staff in order to slow the spread of COVID-19. The Texas Senator invoked recent optimism over safe in-person instruction and concluded: “Democrats’ view on the science, unfortunately, is very convenient, that they call it science if it agrees with their partisan agenda and if it doesn’t agree with their partisan agenda, never mind.”

United States’ recovery, Cruz described the bill as a “liberal wish list.” Emphasizing the Republican Party’s prior willingness to pass relief bills, Cruz attacked the inclusion of provisions not directly related to the pandemic and warned that the bill was unlikely to attract any Republican support.

“Republicans are eager to work together on getting vaccines out on fighting the virus, on getting people back to work, on helping small businesses and we’ve demonstrated we’ll roll up our sleeves and work with Democrats,” argued Cruz. “They don’t want to work with us. They are going to try to ram through a partisan list completely unrelated to the pandemic because they got power and they don’t want to waste the power.”

Finally, Cruz criticized the Biden administration’s refusal to address border issues, asserting a rise in illegal crossings, including by unaccompanied children.

“What Joe Biden is doing – amnesty, catch-and-release, and encouraging illegal immigration – is not compassionate. It kills people,” he warned. “For Democrats, it’s all about politics.”