Ted Cruz’s warning to ‘woke CEOs’ blasted by former government ethics boss

‘This may be the most openly corrupt thing any Senator has said,’ writes Walter Shaub, a former director of the US Office of Government Ethics

In a Wall Street Journal column, Senator Ted Cruz pledged not to do favors for corporate donors from now on (Getty Images)

US Senator Ted Cruz is facing ridicule for writing a surprisingly candid newspaper column, which one government ethics expert called “the most openly corrupt thing any Senator has said.”

After a number of corporations objected to Georgia’s restrictive new voting law, Mr Cruz took to TheWall Street Journal to vent his fury. He and other Republicans, he pledged, will not do inappropriate favors in exchange for corporate money… “this time.”

“This time, we won’t look the other way on Coca-Cola’s $12 billion in back taxes owed,” Mr Cruz wrote in an op-ed titledYour Woke Money Is No Good Here. “This time, when Major League Baseball lobbies to preserve its multibillion-dollar antitrust exception, we’ll say no thank you.”

(Coca-Cola is in involved in a long-running tax-liability dispute with the IRS.)

As many observers pointed out, the Texas senator seemed to be admitting that he and other GOP lawmakers had done these things in the past.

“This may be the most openly corrupt thing any Senator has said,” tweeted Walter Shaub, a former director of the US Office of Government Ethics. 

“It’s the part everyone knows: these crooks sell access,” he went on. “Others have the sense not to admit it. This is why our republic is broken. Immoral politicians selling power we’ve entrusted to them like it’s theirs to sell.”

Another Twitter user put it more succinctly: 

“Announcing you will no longer take bribes isn’t the defense you think it is.”

As his op-ed progressed, Mr Cruz dug his hole deeper. While promising not to accept corporate money – from now on – he quantified exactly how much he’d accepted in the past.

“In my nine years in the Senate, I’ve received $2.6 million in contributions from corporate political-action committees,” he wrote. “Starting today, I no longer accept money from any corporate PAC. I urge my GOP colleagues at all levels to do the same.”

In the next paragraph, he listed a few things he and his colleagues had “allowed” corporations to do at the United States’ expense.

“We’ve allowed them to ship jobs overseas, attack gun rights, and destroy our energy companies,” he wrote.

The Republican finished his article with a warning to those same companies.

“When the time comes that you need help with a tax break or a regulatory change, I hope the Democrats take your calls, because we may not,” he scolded. “Starting today, we won’t take your money either.”

Mr Cruz’s office has not yet responded to The Independent’s request for comment.