Ted Cruz disappointed advocates of internet freedom on Thursday, voting for the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act (CISA), a bill that incentivizes businesses to turn over third party records to both the government and other businesses for purposes of “cyber security”. Civil liberties advocates such as the ACLU, Rand Paul and a slew of major tech companies such as Google and Apple have come out against CISA, arguing that it essentially amounts to government surveillance. Though no explanation has come from Cruz’s office, it is a vote that is likely to stun many of his supporters.This is contrary to Cruz’s stated support of internet freedom, having campaigned on the issue both very recently and extensively throughout the primary season.
Perhaps the most shocking thing, however, is a video from an October 15th Iowa town hall meeting where Cruz states that he has not studied the CISA bill. The video brings into serious question whether Cruz read the bill before he voted for it on Thursday. This meeting was just one week before the vote, and Cruz’s campaign schedule shows that he spent most of the rest of the week and weekend campaigning. There was very little time for him to do any significant study of a bill that is so large.
In fairness to the senator, it is theoretically possible that in the four days he was not campaigning between this town hall event and the actual vote he got himself up to speed on this issue. It was a large bill with over 120 amendments, however, which makes that much less likely. That being said, isn’t the fact that he had admittedly not studied this a serious red flag?
This vote puts Cruz’s outreach to liberty voters in serious doubt, with internet freedom having been a major issue for liberty voters for a long time. Cruz’s discussions with libertarians throughout this campaign have created the distinct impression of a pro internet freedom candidate, and by voting for CISA he has rejected that stance. It certainly appears that Ted Cruz voted to curtail our internet freedom without reading the bill, and he owes liberty lovers across this country an explanation.
– Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz –
*Cruz served as a law clerk to J. Michael Luttig, US Court of Appeals and William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the US in 1996
*1997 – 1998 Cruz worked at a private firm, one of his duties as private council to John Boehner.
*Cruz joined the George W. Bush presidential campaign in 1999
*After President Bush took office, Cruz served in the U.S. Justice Department and U.S. FTC
*Cruz served as Solicitor General of Texas from 2003 to May 2008.
*From 2008, up to 2013 (when he was sworn in as a US Senator) Cruz worked for a corporate law firm representing big corporations.
After a career of mostly government positions, Cruz claims he’s an “outsider”. Seriously? An outsider? Outside what? Seems like an over-zealous ladder climber to me.
He has missed a LOT of votes for a first term, 2 1/2 year Senator.
Ya forgot “…where he argued FOR OBAMA’s STIMULUS” as a lawyer being paid almost $700/hr
So the assumption is Ted did not read the bill in the 4 day between time- a guy who read the Obamacare bill in 24 hours and reads massive legislation and case law… And a guy who has successively argued 10th amendment cases before the SUpreme cort.
Your desperation is oozing out as Rand sinks to 2% in the polls and is now underwater in favorability in Iowa and elsewhere.
Might want to watcch this video and think about something. Has Rand Paul, the supporter of Mitch McConnell EVER gotten a welcome home like this? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8hDdD-Y6Y4
Not sure what would be worse.. Not reading it or reading it and voting yes.. No one cares about standing ovation videos, we are talking about votes. Rand has plenty of videos of crowds as does everyone else including a socialist like Bernie… We are focused on who has the best voting record, and unfortunately for cruz, his record isn’t nearly as good as Rand Paul’s. He won’t get liberty votes especially with actions like this. Add this to voting for TPA, extending patriot act, funding syrian rebels, Voting for more debt several times, etc. Wrong site for this, head to breitbart.
And ‘liberty’ folks will back Paul- after SUPPORTING McConnell??? Get real; Paul is likely out before the first votes are cast.
Sorry but Paul never supported McConnell more than Cruz did to be honest. Cruz voted for Mitch for his leadership position. He endorsed McConnell before Bevin got in and campaigned vs Grimes of course. Lol Rand has no reason to drop before NV.. Rand is going to win Iowa as our ground game is too strong. How about you defend the voting record of Cruz? Isn’t that important to you? It sure is to Rand supporters. Maybe he should call someone a Liar to defend this vote too?…
Cruz is not tea party and never will be. He’s Kissinger, CFR, NAU/NAFTA butt kisser supported by Mexican nationals who fix straw polls in his favor..
As co-founder of the North Texas Tea Party who grilled Ted on all that crap a YEAR before his election of our Senator in one of the toughest vetting sessions of the 60 I’ve been part of, I know for a fact that you are wrong. Ted maintains over 50% support in our Tea Parties in Texas, where we actually KNOW the guy. The video above was from a composite Tea Party event, with the Primary host being the Arlington Tea Party.
Hey ask him why he has to miss 30 percent of his votes when you get the chance. I haven’t heard back from him on that.
This news story is not accurate. The vote they had yesterday was on an AMENDMENT to CISA. The amendment was proposed by Rand Paul, and was voted down. The actual CISA bill has not yet been put to a vote. You can find the CISA bill at this link:
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/754
and Paul’s AMENDMENT that Cruz voted on at this link:
https://www.congress.gov/amendment/114th-congress/senate-amendment/2564/text
I’m not a defender of Cruz, but a defender of truth. Get your facts straight.
We don’t want facts. This is the internet. Everything we read is TRUE
THIS article is so inaccurate! Cruz, Paul, Rubio and Graham were in Denver for the Presidential Debate! http://motherboard.vice.com/read/did-your-senator-vote-for-cisa
CISA Vote: Oct. 27th CISA Senate Vote: Passed 74 to 21. Cruz did not vote on this bill. Returning to vote would have been meaningless where being elected president can give him the power to protect our 4th Amendment rights! Cruz has always protected our rights even from RINOs!
Hey World Court! Bug Off! Ted Cruz fights off Bush executive order at SCOTUS
http://michellemalkin.com/2008/07/16/hey-world-court-bug-off/
Are we catching on YET??