Sen. Ted Cruz confirmed Sunday that he's seeking a third term to represent Texas in the U.S. Senate, rather than working on a campaign for the White House in the 2024 election cycle.
"I'm running for reelection to the Senate," the Texas Republican told CBS "Face the Nation" anchor Margaret Brennan when she pushed him on whether he is planning another presidential race. "There's a reason I'm in Texas today. I'm not in Iowa, I'm in Texas, and I'm fighting for 30 million Texans."
Cruz has introduced a limits bill that would allow senators just two six-year terms in office but insisted that his race for a third term comes as Texans want him to keep fighting for them.
"I'm a passionate defender of term limits," Cruz said. "I think that Congress would work much better if every senator were limited to two terms and if every House member were limited to three terms. I've introduced a constitutional amendment to put that into the Constitution."
And if the amendment passes, said Cruz, "I will happily, happily comply."
However, he stressed that he "never said I'm going to unilaterally comply."
"I'll tell you what, when the socialists and when the swamp are ready to leave Washington, I will be more than happy to comply by the same rules that apply for everyone," said Cruz. "But until then, I'm going to keep fighting for 30 million Texans because they've asked me to."
Cruz also Sunday discussed the news about the Chinese balloon being shot down, saying that he commends President Joe Biden for "having the guts to shoot this down" as that was what should have happened, but "he didn't do that until a week after it entered U.S. airspace."
This allowed the Chinese a full week to conduct spying operations and the ability to not only get photographs, but intercept communications.
Further, allowing the balloon to cross the United States before it was shot down off the Carolinas coast Saturday "telegraphed weakness" to Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Chinese government.
"Imagine how this would have played out if nobody had taken any pictures of the balloon, if nobody in Montana had looked up and noticed this giant balloon, if it wasn't in the news," said Cruz. "I think the only reason they shot it down is because it made it into the news and they felt forced to as a matter of politics rather than national security. That's a bad message for the Chinese government to hear."
Cruz also spoke out, as the top Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee, about the Chinese-owned social media company TikTok.
"The degree to which they have infiltrated our children is really disturbing," he said. "There are problems in terms of the messages that they're pushing on young kids … you have messages of self-harm, where the algorithms push self-harm messages on young girls, and we're seeing really disturbing figures among teenagers."
The Chinese communist government, he added, has access to all information TikTok collects, making it a "serious, serious threat."
Cruz said lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have concerns about TikTok, and "it makes sense early on for us to have a hearing" on the service and how it undermines national security along with "hurting our kids."
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