Senator Ted Cruz appears to have not been telling the full truth about his past experience with studying the presidential pardon power.
On Monday, Cruz was raked over the coals due to a somewhat-longer-than-brief pause of 18 seconds after being questioned about President Donald Trump‘s controversial theory of executive power as it relates to the presidential pardon outlined in the U.S. Constitution. (To be fair: Trump’s position isn’t exactly new and is simply the logical endpoint of the unitary executive theory promulgated and embraced by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.)
By all accounts, Cruz appeared to have ignored the ask before finally answering the question like this:
That is not a Constitutional issue I’ve studied. So, I will withhold judgment at this point.
Alright, folks. Here’s the audio pic.twitter.com/3UhsX3f8Jh
— Haley Byrd (@byrdinator) 4 June 2018
Most of the media reaction lasered in on Cruz’s semi-delayed answer. This is understandable.
Cruz’s small, but loyal, following leapt at the opportunity to defend their Trump-whipped father figure and most of America did the sane and normal thing by laughing at Cruz’s audible faux pas. Ho-hum, but, there’s even more fun in the details.
