Ted Cruz just humiliated himself in incredibly awkward exchange with reporter over Trump pardon scandal

Today’s biggest Trump story was the utterly absurd and transparently crooked tweet early this morning in which he falsely claimed that “numerous legal scholars” state he has the “absolute right” to pardon himself.

Embedded in the same tweet was the disingenuous claim that he doesn’t need to pardon himself since he has done nothing wrong. If the latter were true, Trump wouldn’t feel the need to state the former. The entire message reads like something just shy of an outright admission of guilt.

As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong? In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2018

Not surprisingly, Trump was bombarded by critics who shredded his outrageous claim. Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, swatted the president down and compared him to Richard Nixon, treating the Trump tweet with as little seriousness as it deserved.

According to Haley Byrd, a reporter for The Weekly Standard, Senator Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) response to Trump’s tweet was downright embarrassing and a far cry from Schiff’s pitch-perfect rebuttal.

Byrd asked Cruz — who was defeated and humiliated by Trump during the 2016 Republican primaries— if he agrees that President Trump can pardon himself. Cruz was silent for eighteen seconds, a stretch of time so long that Byrd highlighted the absurdity of it in a tweet, before claiming “that is not a constitutional issue I have studied so I withhold judgment at this point.” (AUDIO BELOW)

The milquetoast response is cowardly even by Cruz’s abysmally low standards. This is, after all, a man who continues to support the president’s agenda despite the fact that Trump insulted his wife’s physical appearance and implied his father helped assassinate JFK.

Cruz is a man without a spine who doesn’t belong in office. He’s shown time and again that he lacks the courage to stand up for not only himself and his family, but basic American values.

If he can’t even bring himself to say that the president can’t pardon himself for crimes, how can his constituents trust him to uphold the law? The people of Texas must get rid of Cruz.

Click here to donate to his Democratic challenger, Beto O’Rourke.

I ask Ted Cruz if he agrees with Trump that the president can pardon himself. Cruz is silent for eighteen (18!) seconds before telling reporters it’s not a constitutional area he’s studied.

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) June 4, 2018

Alright, folks. Here's the audio pic.twitter.com/3UhsX3f8Jh

— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) June 4, 2018

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