Texas Senator Ted Cruz we spoke with a few weeks ago while he was in self quarantine.

Thanks so much for joining us again tonight.

Senator Lindsay.

Great to be with you.

Thank you.

Today, your home state of Texas surpassed more than 10,000 cases of Kobe 19.

What's the biggest concern for you right now And for Texas?

Any worry that people may let their guard down and push to reopen too soon and places that haven't yet had a surge of cases?

Well, look, we're facing to natural on national disasters simultaneously.

We've got a public health disaster of the Corona virus epidemic on, and that is is way are imposing extraordinary public health steps to keep people safe and to stop this pandemic from getting even.

At the same time, we've got an economic disaster.

We we have now over 17 million people who've lost their jobs in the last three weeks.

And it is the consequence of government policies protecting our safety that has devastated jobs and industries.

We've gotta solve both.

We've gotta listen to the science and the medical professionals, flattened the curb and stop this disease.

But we also need to as quickly as possible get people back to work, eh?

So they could provide for their families and when we can keep keep people away from from the crushing poverty that results from stopping our economy.

And today, of course, Congress debated a Republican proposal for another $250 billion funds for those small business loans, which Democrats blocked.

Democrats argue that their own proposal included all of the $250 billion that Republicans requested for small businesses, plus money for hospitals and first responders.

Is that really a partisan wish list, as you called it on Twitter today?

Democrats say they're trying to get ahead of the likely need for more funding on the front lines, fighting this virus while also targeting emergency aid to small businesses.

Well, I think congressional Democrats, unfortunately have to frequently approached this crisis as an opportunity, an opportunity to advance their own partisan agenda.

We need to be coming together in a bipartisan manner you to look at the emergency relief bill that passed Congress two weeks ago, it ended up passing the Senate unanimously, 96 to nothing.

Every Republican voted for it.

Every Democrat voted for it.

I voted for it and Bernie Sanders voted for it.

Everybody in between.

That's what we need to be focusing on.

That bill almost went down because of the last minute Nancy Pelosi came in and held it hostage.

Or a whole series of partisan objectives.

Things like the green New Deal.

But they have nothing to do with the Corona virus epidemic.

What we saw today is one of the most important components of the emergency relief bill are the loans to small businesses to keep them alive.

And, by the way, everyone agrees with with those loans Democrats and Republicans.

The problem is, in the five days the program has been lied.

There's been so much uptake, so many small businesses, grasping for a lifeline that the administration came and said, We need to replenish these funds that Democrats that should have been unease e bipartisan agreement to say We want to keep these small businesses alive.

We want to keep people with paychecks and jobs, and instead they decided, No, let's use it, is it to hold hostage for other priority is that that was wrong.

And it's the same games Nancy Pelosi played two weeks ago.

They need to stop that and focus on solving these crises right now.

But let's take a step back.

I mean, why didn't Republicans try to negotiate a deal of Democrats before voting on the bill?

I'm just like the last rescue Bill.

You're gonna have to get support from both sides of the aisle, so why not get the Democratic buy in so that these murders can get past more quickly and get aid to the Americans who need it?

Well, if you look at the Senate bill that passed that was initially negotiated a bipartisan manner, there were a number of Democratic senators who were actively part of drafting it, who were engaged.

Everyone expected that it would pass.

And then at the last minute, Nancy Pelosi, they made a very cynical decision and torpedo the whole thing.

Held hostage for four days for a series of she was demanding subsidies for windmills.

Now, as I asked on the Senate floor, what the hell does a windmill have to do with the Corona virus epidemic she wanted additional emissions constraints on airplanes that had nothing to do with this crisis.

And it's just a example of, I think, cynical partisanship, small businesses like like restaurants and bars and nail salons and hair salons and movie theaters, those of the businesses that they're going belly up right now.

And and under this program they can get a guaranteed loan from their local community lender that enables them to pay salary to keep people on paychecks.

Millions of people's jobs are at stake, and we ought to focus on that, not the partisan priorities of Nancy Pelosi.

And just quickly, any chance of things will move for that.

The talks will continue over the weekend.

There's certainly a chance what we saw when these when when the Democrats played these games a couple of weeks ago, that they couldn't hold the line and eventually what passed was actually very similar to the bipartisan bill that had been negotiate in the Senate.

To begin with, we may see the Democrats blink and realize that that holding small businesses hostage is not the right thing to do.

I suspect a lot of Democrats are hearing from their small businesses.

Why are you cutting off the funds These air emergency bridge loans to keep small businesses alive and keep people in their jobs.

And that needs to be.

Our priority is keeping people are able to survive this crisis and move on and then have the economy roar back with small businesses driving the growth.

Senator Cruz a pleasure to talk to you Thanks for your time tonight.

Hi, everyone.

George Stephanopoulos here.

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