This all came out when political activist Lauren Windsor approached Cruz at the Atlanta event. Windsor is the founder of an online video outlet called The Undercurrent. The outlet has increasingly used undercover video to call out conservative politicians like Cruz. Tuesday morning, Windsor posted the undercover footage of Cruz from the Atlanta event.
When Windsor spoke with Cruz, she thanked him for advocating for Herschel Walker in his Georgia Senate race and his campaign against the IRS. “But I think it’s imperative that you really have to defund the FBI after all the witch hunts that are goin’ on,” Windsor told Cruz.
In response, Cruz says in the video: “It is horrific the abuse of power at the FBI, and it’s wrong. And there needs to be a complete house cleaning that happens at the FBI.”
Windsor then asked if that will be possible in a Republican-led Senate. “I think we need to fight to do that and need to fight to have real oversight,” Cruz responds.
The undercover video made the rounds on social media, eventually getting shared by the Twitter account for the liberal super PAC MeidasTouch. The PAC's post said, “Ted Cruz wants to defund the FBI.”“It is horrific the abuse of power at the FBI and it’s wrong." – Texas Sen. Ted Cruz
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This got a reaction from the Texas senator, who responded on Twitter. Cruz said in the post: “Leftie Twitter is gonna like – it’s what they do – but every word I said is true: the FBI’s raid was a horrific ‘abuse of power;’ there needs to be a ‘complete housecleaning’ at the FBI; we need ‘real oversight’ from Congress. All absolutely true!”
Although Cruz appeared to agree with Windsor's comments, he didn't openly say he wanted to defund the FBI in the video. Still, many Republicans have said as much. Georgia U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, for instance, has tweeted, "DEFUND THE FBI!"
On Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, a Republican from Texas, took to Twitter to claim that "NOBODY trusts the FBI & DOJ anymore." He added, "They've morphed into a political organization that's hellbent on intimidating & scaring law-abiding conservatives."
Ever since the search of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, Republicans have increasingly criticized the FBI. During its search, the FBI took 11 sets of classified material from Trump’s resort, according to CNN. Not long after the search, a man attacked an FBI building in Ohio and later died when he was shot by police. On a social media account allegedly owned by the attacker, he told followers to arm themselves and prepare for combat.
It’s uncertain what legal repercussions Trump will face. If there are any, some are suggesting it will lead to civil unrest. In a recent interview on Fox News, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said, “If there’s a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information, after the Clinton debacle…there’ll be riots in the streets.”
