Ted Cruz appeared with one of Fox News’ top January 6 conspiracy theorists to sell his conspiracy-laden book

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) appeared on Mark Levin’s Fox News show to promote his new book, Justice Corrupted: How the Left Weaponized Our Legal System, and participated in an interview filled with conspiracy theories and election denialism. 

Appearing on October 23, Cruz told Levin he wrote the book because Democrats have “turned the Department of Justice, they’ve turned the FBI, they’ve turned the intelligence community into political enforcers.” He said the Department of Justice under President Joe Biden has been taken over by the “deep state” and said it poses “a fundamental threat to our liberty.” 

Levin is one of Fox News’ biggest election denialists and a major apologist for the January 6 insurrection:

  • Levin defended Donald Trump’s fake elector scheme and the former president’s claims of a stolen election. He claimed that “the system is built for objections” and that “when people say that Trump was trying to reverse an election — it's not over until Congress says it's over.”
  • Levin also claimed Trump’s potential tampering with January 6 witnesses would not be against the law and downplayed claims Trump directed the Secret Service to bring him to the Capitol on January 6.
  • When coup memo author John Eastman was under investigation by the January 6 committee, Levin repeatedly defended the disgraced law professor, saying he “didn’t do anything that was corrupt.” Levin demanded the release of emails between him and Eastman secured by the committee, claiming, “I'd love to know how they got them, apart from what's in them. Nobody came to me, I didn't get a subpoena.”
  • Levin also downplayed texts from Fox host Sean Hannity used by the January 6 committee to show Hannity’s hypocrisy over the insurrection.
  • Levin downplayed sedition charges against members of the paramilitary group the Oath Keepers, claiming that “it’s still not an insurrection.”
  • Levin attacked the January 6 committee, telling his audience, “I hope you don’t watch,” and calling the hearings “ridiculous.” He has also called the committee “an internal enemy” and said it represents “unprecedented totalitarianism.”
  • He called for Republicans to investigate the January 6 committee and even threatened staffers. 
  • Levin pushed the lie that Vice President Mike Pence could have stopped the certification of the 2020 election and the conspiracy theory that the FBI instigated the insurrection.
  • Prior to the January 6 insurrection, Levin pushed members of Congress to reject the election results, claiming refusing to do so is equivalent to “shredding the Constitution.”

Given Levin’s history, It is no surprise that Cruz decided to promote his revisionist history book on his show.

When asked about the Department of Justice’s handling of January 6 insurrectionists, Cruz said his book includes “the first inside account of what happened on January 6.” Cruz showed that the book includes both election denial and references to right-wing conspiracy theories, noting, “I take them through the evidence of election fraud and voter fraud in November 2020, which the Democrats and the corporate media insist doesn’t exist,” and, “I ask in the book questions like, who is Ray Epps?” (Right-wing media baselessly accused Ray Epps of being an FBI plant who incited the insurrection.)

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Citation From the October 23, 2022, edition of Fox News' Life, Liberty & Levin

Cruz also revealed that his book discusses “George Soros prosecutors,” saying there is “a really dangerous phenomenon where Soros has put millions in terms of electing radicals who let violent criminals go.” Cruz used the Waukesha, Wisconsin, massacre suspect as an example, claiming a “George Soros prosecutor” let him out of jail before he drove a car into a parade, repeating a conspiracy theory about the event and a common right-wing trope about the philanthropist. 

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Citation From the October 23, 2022, edition of Fox News' Life, Liberty & Levin

In a bizarre parting comment to promote the book, Cruz noted the last time he was on Levin's show to promote a book it “shot to number on the Amazon bestseller list” and was released “when Ruth Bader Ginsburg had died,” noting “I'm hopeful we'll see the same thing.”