Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been barred from one of the Senate's biggest discussions of the year following an outburst against majority leader Mitch McConnell.
The House and Senate armed services committees have been scaled down to the smallest numbers they've seen in years for discussions regarding the National Defense Authorization Act. This annual bill funds the US military and all its branches. The negotiating panel has been slashed to keep Ted Cruz away from the talks, according to The Huffington Post.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) decided to exclude Cruz from the talks. On Friday, Cruz called Sen. McConnell a liar on the Senate floor. "I cannot believe he would tell a flat-out lie," Cruz said, according to Fox News. "We keep winning elections and then we keep getting leaders who don't do anything they promised," Cruz said. McConnell was not on the floor to hear the comments.
Cruz is angry about a different bill, according to CNN. Cruz recently questioned McConnell about the Trade Promotion Authority bill, asking McConnell if he promised to give the bill's supporters an amendment in return for their votes.
Ted Cruz is best-known in the Senate for instigating the government shutdown in 2013 and staging a 21-hour filibuster opposing the Affordable Care Act. He is currently a Republican Presidential candidate.
Cruz's fiery speech against McConnell is against the rules of the Senate, which state that Senators cannot "directly or indirectly, by any form of words, impute to another senator or to other senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a senator," according to CNN.
