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Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, Radio news.
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And let's go now to Capitol Hill. Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas joins us live. He's chair of the Senate Commerce and Transportation Committee and he also serves on both the Senate Foreign Relations and Senate Judiciary Committees. Thanks so much for being with us.
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Senator Julie Joe, good to be with you.
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I want to begin with an interview that President Trump just had on NBC News regarding ICE enforcement. He said when it comes comes to Minneapolis, maybe a softer touch is needed, although he says you still need to be tough. What do you think is the right approach right now?
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Well, listen, what we're seeing in Minneapolis is tragic. We're seeing angry left wing protesters who are deliberately confronting law enforcement, are getting violent with law enforcement, are obstructing the efforts of law enforcement to arrest violent criminal illegal aliens. And unfortunately, we're also seeing the consequences of the overheated rhetoric that we've seen from so many Democrats. As you know, two Americans were shot in interactions with law enforcement. Anytime an American is shot in interaction with a law enforcement, it's tragedy. But, but, but it is a tragedy that is being compounded and being encouraged by Democrats who are using language referring to ICE agents as Nazis, referring to them as murderers in a way that is wildly irresponsible, wildly reckless. They are encouraging violence against law enforcement. And I wish everyone would just ratchet down the rhetoric and focus on, look, it was not very long ago that there was enormous common ground that, that violent criminals should be arrested and taken off the street. And sadly, Minneapolis is now a clash over that basic proposition.
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B
Senator, though, do you think it's time for ICE to make some changes after what we have seen?
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Listen, I think ICE is doing a heroic job. I think they're doing an incredibly difficult job. And I think confrontations are being egged on by left wing protesters who are engaging in violence. They're following strategies of how to deliberately obstruct ice. When they're coming in to arrest a murderer, when they're coming in to arrest a child molester or a rapist, these left wing agitators, it's not an accident that this is happening in Minneapolis, the same place that we saw several years ago the Black Lives Matter and antifa riots begin, where we saw the looting and the burning that happened. There is serious money from the left that is funding these radicals. And this violence is unacceptable. In my view. Violence is always, always, always wrong. And I think this confrontation, it reflects just how extreme today's Democrat Party has gotten. I think the American people, I think people in Texas want to see violent criminals arrested. And yet over and over again, Democrats are siding with the criminals over law abiding citizens.
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Well, I just want to ask you about the debate that's with regard to Homeland Security then, Senator, I hear the position you're coming from, so I'm guessing that a lot of these are non starters for you. We talked to your colleague John Cornyn yesterday. He said the request to de mask ICE agents was insulting to their professionalism. Is that something that you would consider.
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If it meant funding no security and.
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Bringing down the temperature?
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No, because the reason that ice ages are having to wear masks is because the left is deliberately doxing them. They are targeting them. If they find out their identities. They are sending violent protesters to their homes. They are threatening their families. And by the way, you have Democrat politicians calling on these law enforcement officers to be docs. Hakeem Jeffries, the leader of Democrats in the House, stood up and said, go and unmask them and identify them and go after them. That is wildly reckless. You know, I was in Dallas several months ago when, when one deranged leftist opened fire trying to kill ICE agents with a rifle because he had listened to the anti ICE rhetoric, the radical left. This is dangerous and this is, this is violent. And listen, these law enforcement officers are just trying to protect their families and protect their kids from the violence being fomented by the extreme left.
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C
Well, I just wonder what you think of the President's comment then, Senator. What does he mean by softer touch?
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Well, I think it's exactly what I just said, which is ratcheting down the rhetoric. I think that's important for us to try to take some of the anger. You know, it is an unhealthy dynamic in our country that the two sides are filled with so much rage and just yell at each other. We need to be able to talk to each other and try to find some modicum of common ground. That hadn't happened in a long time, unfortunately.
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B
Senator, though, when you say ratcheting down the rhetoric, are you saying that you believe it's all Democrats that have brought on this problem? I mean, aren't both sides somewhat to blame, do you think?
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Look, I've encouraged everyone to ratchet down the rhetoric. And for example, the two shootings that happen, any time you have an officer involved, shoot, there's an investigation. That's that standard practice, that that is a natural step to occur. That should occur here. And I think anyone who jumped to conclusions about what happened, we should wait and see the evidence. You Saw you saw Democrats go on TV and scream that ICE agents are murderers and they're just shooting people for no reason. That is wildly reckless and there should be an investigation. That happens. That happens as a matter of course. I'll also note one thing that the DHS Secretary Christie. No. Did that I very much agree with is she announced that they're going to be putting body cameras on ICE agents. I think that is a very positive development. I don't think body cameras are the friends of the extreme left Democrats and the irresponsible claims they're making. And I think the body cameras a, they protect citizens when you're interacting with law enforcement, but they protect law enforcement. And so I think that's a very positive development.
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C
Senator, I'd like to ask you about an important hearing that you held today with regard to autonomous driving and a piece of legislation that you're pursuing to do away with the patchwork of rules on the state level and actually come up with a national framework. We heard from Mauricio Pena, an executive at Waymo, the Alphabet owned autonomous driving company. Here's what we heard. In over 100 million miles, our data shows that we are 10 times less likely to be involved in a serious injury collision as compared to human drivers in the cities where we operate in. And data also shows that we're 12 times less likely to be involved in a pedestrian injury collision in the cities where we operate. So I think we're making a difference already. Were you compelled by the presentations today from Waymo and from Tesla, Senator, and would you get into a self driving car tonight?
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I absolutely would get in a self driving car. And I got to say there are very few policy areas where we can have as dramatic and direct an impact saving lives as dealing with autonomous vehicles. You know. You know, every year about 40,000Americans are killed in car crashes and 94% of those come from human error. They come from, from drunk drivers or distracted drivers. You get people texting and driving, yet people, their kids are yelling them in the back, all sorts of things, people falling asleep because they're really tired. And autonomous vehicles, we are seeing that they are dramatically improving safety. On top of that, there's a whole other element of keeping our kids safe. Look, unfortunately, you know, all of who are parents who have teenagers or young adults, you know, sometimes kids go out and do something stupid, sometimes they have a few too many drinks and sometimes kids foolishly get behind the wheel and it can be the last decision they ever make. I think AVs provide a real source of safety, to keep our kids safe, to keep our grandkids safe. And I got to say, one of the things I talked about also at the hearing today, I'm a father, Julie, as you know, of two teenage girls, I'm not Heidi. And I will not let our girls come home in an Uber because I don't trust a strange man alone in a car with our teenage girls. In my city of Houston, four Uber drivers were just indicted for sexually assaulting teenage girls in their cars. I got to say, as a dad, I would really be grateful to be able to have an autonomous vehicle take my girls home when they need a ride without any danger of an assault. So there are lots of steps. And by the way, on top of that, we heard a lot of testimony of the benefits of AVs for people with disability, whether, whether the visually impaired or people with, with paralysis or using WH chairs or people who are elderly and lack the ability to drive anymore, to drive safely. Autonomous vehicles has the potential for a whole wide category of Americans to really substantially improve their lives.
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C
Senator, I just ask you quickly. I'm getting the hook here, but can you tell us about the ROTOR act following the collision outside of dca, we understand that you've received a promise to get a vote on the House floor before we say good night. Night. Is that going to happen?
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I believe it's going to happen. House leadership has been unequivocal in committing to putting the ROTOR act on the floor. I think the House is going to pass it. This is bipartisan legislation I authored to improve safety for the flying public. The NTSB just put out their report about the horrific crash that happened over over DCA Airport last year. And they concluded if the ROTOR act had been the law, that crash would have been avoided and those 67 souls would still be with us. We can do this. This would make the identifying public much, much safer. It's already passed the Senate unanimously and I believe the House will take it up and President Trump will sign it.
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C
Let us know when you get a timeline on that. Senator, thank you for joining us. Ted Cruz, the Republican from Texas, live on Bloomberg.