Ted Cruz spills on 'fiery' Senate meeting with Todd Blanche: 'Fireworks at an epic level'
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spilled the tea on the red-hot meeting between Republican senators and Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche earlier in the week.
"There were fireworks at an epic level," Cruz said on a Friday episode of his podcast. "I got to say it's one of the roughest meetings that I've seen in my entire time in the Senate. There are a lot of Republican senators who were just p---ed."
The Thursday meeting took place to discuss Trump's proposed $1.8 billion "anti-weaponization" fund. During and shortly after the meeting, reporters shared that GOP senators poured outrage on Blanche.
Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), fresh off a primary defeat to a Trump-endorsed candidate, and retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) in particular were "p---ed" and "angry," Cruz said.
"Fiery does not begin to cut it," Cruz went on. "The senators I mentioned, they were p---ed, but almost every Republican senator was there."
He estimated that "probably 45 senators" were in the room, "blasting the attorney general, and they were p---ed," Cruz repeated.
"There were multiple senators who were yelling at the Attorney General, and it was not calm," Cruz described. "It was yelling, and they were saying, 'This feels like self-dealing.'"
The "anti-weaponization" fund was created as part of a settlement of Trump's lawsuit against the IRS, an agency he controls as president. Blanche's primary talking point in the meeting was that the Trump family isn't eligible for payments through the fund.
Cruz said that "unhappy" senators demanded to know if January 6 rioters would get payments.
"Todd Blanche was adamant, and he said, not just no, but 'hell no,'" Cruz recalled. "And he said this, not just to one senator. This was to three or five or 10. I mean, it was over and over again. He said, 'No, no, no, nobody who committed an act of violence, nobody who assaulted law enforcement.'"
Although Cruz admitted that Blanche is "a good guy," he said, "I got to tell you, people were really worked up," and repeated, "It was angry. It was hot. People were p---ed."