CNN's Jake Tapper reminded viewers exactly who was responsible for the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots as part of the network's coverage of Monday's certification of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the United States.
Tapper was joined by anchors Kaitlan Collins and John King, as well as former Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff, Marc Short.
"Right now you're looking at images from the floor of the House of Representatives," Tapper began. "And there is the Speaker, Mike Johnson, and Vice President Kamala Harris. It's obviously a bipartisan or even nonpartisan event, where the leaders of this country come together to count the electoral votes."
Tapper then narrowed in on Sen.Ted Cruz (R-TX).
"There's Ted Cruz, Senator from Texas, who was one of the main individuals who helped cause what happened four years ago by putting forward the falsehood that the vice president could somehow do something to stop the electoral count," Tapper said.
Kaitlan Collins jumped in, "Ted Cruz, obviously, was the first senator to object, and, obviously, just looking back on this, what the vice president maintained at the time, as Marc knows well, is he did not have the power to block the certification on this day four years ago."
"And he didn't," Tapper interjected.
Also read: 'Bring it on': Defiant Raskin responds to GOP threats of retaliation for J6 investigation
Collins continued, "What we have seen is the Electoral Count Act that was passed reaffirming that interpretation of the law so people like John Eastman, who Pence later referred to as a crackpot of attorneys that Trump was listening to at the time, could not make that argument. B also it changed the threshold for how many people have to object to lead to that moment. So, even if we were in the exact same situation as four years ago, had this law been passed, the threshold would have had to have been much higher than what it was four years ago for that to actually happen."
Tapper wasn't yet finished dunking on Cruz.
"Marc Short, are you able to look at Ted Cruz without thinking about January 6th?" Tapper asked.
"Sure, Jake, because honestly, I think what Ted Cruz is doing was advocating — I may not agree there was evidence of any sort of theft in that election, but it is their right to raise an objection," Short answered.
