Cruz condemns ‘corrupt’ Washington, DC statehood push

US Republican Senator Ted Cruz has denounced as “corrupt” a recent move by the House Democrats to push for Washington, DC statehood, saying the measure reflects their determination to ensure they never lose their grip on power.

The US House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly voted, for the second time in less than a year, to make the District of Columbia the 51st state.

The legislation was passed 216 to 208 by the Democratic-controlled House and would move to the Senate, with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) hailing it as a "momentous day for American democracy.”

Democrats also said that the Washington, DC statehood would be able to finally right the civil rights injustice of taxing residents of the area without affording them any representation in Congress.

Republicans in the US Senate, accusing Democrats of a "power grab" to advance a "far-left" agenda, have already expressed their opposition to the move and underlined that they would block the bill.

US House passes bill to make Washington, DC, the 51st state

The US House of Representatives on Thursday narrowly voted, for the second time in less than a year, to make the District of Columbia the 51st state.

Cruz said at a news conference on Thursday that the effort by US House of Representatives to pass legislation to make Washington, DC the country’s 51st state was "fundamentally corrupt."

Cruz slammed the House Democrats’ motives and said, “Their first priority is to change the rules to stay in power.”

The Texas senator also questioned whether the US Democrats believe in democracy, saying, "If they want to stay in power, there’s a real simple path for that. Convince voters your ideas are right. But that’s too complicated. Sometimes the voters disagree."

The former Republican presidential candidate underlined that Democrats sought to change voting rules in the country to “guarantee victories.”

Moreover, Cruz pilloried a proposed bill by Democrats that would increase the number of the Supreme Court judges from nine to 13.

The senator blasted as an “assault, fundamentally, on the independence of the judiciary" the Democratic Party’s aspirations to pack the Supreme Court with "four left-wing radicals.”

The Democrats’ intention to expand the number of liberal justices in the Supreme Court also stirred backlash from the rest of GOPers, with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warning that the move was fraught with "turning the Supreme Court into just a political football.”

GOP Senators Lindsey Graham and Marsha Blackburn came to the Supreme Court building on Thursday to voice their objection to the ongoing consideration of expanding the US Supreme Court.

Twenty Republican state attorneys general also penned a letter to US President Joe Biden and congressional leaders to express concern about the efforts to expand the Supreme Court, saying it could “seriously undermine the constitutional system, the public’s confidence in our courts, and the rule of law."

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