If Ted Cruz is apologizing for something, then it must be a good day in America.
According to five senators who attended Tuesday’s caucus lunch, Cruz offered the apology in unsolicited remarks, saying that he regretted if any of his colleagues’ schedules were ruined by his maneuvering. He didn’t say whether he would do something similar again, senators said.
And unlike a contentious lunch last year after GOP senators pointedly blamed Cruz for prompting the government shutdown, no sharp words were directed at the Texas freshman at Tuesday’s lunch, according to the attendees. Republicans do not expect Cruz to prevent the Senate from finishing its work promptly this week.
“Yes, the senator acknowledged that a number of his colleagues had to unexpectedly change their weekend plans, and he apologized to them for inconveniencing their personal schedules. That was not his intention,” Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said. “His intention was to secure a vote on President [Barack] Obama’s illegal executive amnesty, and to use every procedural means to do so.”
The comments cap a tumultuous several days for Cruz, who, along with his counterpart, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, suddenly scuttled a bipartisan deal Friday that would have prevented weekend votes in the Senate. After Lee objected to the agreement, Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) brought the Senate back into session Saturday and began to advance nearly two dozen of the president’s stalled nominees.
