WATCH: Senator Ted Cruz Says It's Time For Mitch McConnell To Go Following Disastrous Border Bill

On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to resign from leadership following the 82-year-old support for the "bipartisan" border legislation revealed to the upper chamber on Sunday. The bill was deemed a "betrayal" of Republican voters because of its weak border security reforms.

When asked if it was time for McConnell, who is up for reelection in 2026, to leave his position as leader of Senate Republicans, Cruz, flanked by Sens. Rick Scott (R-FL) and Ron Johnson (R-WI), replied, "I think it is. Look, everyone here also supported a leadership challenge to Mitch McConnell in November. I think a Republican leader should actually lead this conference and advance the priorities of Republicans. I can tell you what I said when we had that leadership election in November 2022. It was right after a very disappointing election. In 2022, the wind was at our back, and it should have been a phenomenal Republican election year. Republicans should have won the Senate. We should have won a big majority in the House. Instead, we lost a seat in the Senate, and we barely got a majority in the House."

Cruz explained that he told McConnell during the November 2022 meeting that if a business failed to the extent to which Republicans failed to live up to expectations during the midterms, then that business would reassess who was in charge. "I said, 'Look, we spent the last two years with a group, a handful of Republicans joining with Democrats, to pass the Democrat agenda. Maybe that's a good idea, but I don't think it is,'" Cruz explained.

Other senators have also called for a change following the legislation's reveal, including Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), who wrote, "This feels like an elaborate practical joke. But it's not funny. Not one bit. I cannot understand how any Republican would think this was a good idea—or anything other than an unmitigated disaster. WE NEED NEW LEADERSHIP — NOW."

In response to critics, Sen. McConnell argued that it was necessary to work with Democrats, given Republicans sole control of one chamber of Congress. "I've had a small group of persistent critics the whole time I've been in this job. They had their shot," McConnell said, referring to Sen. Rick Scott's challenge in 2022, per POLITICO. "The reason we've been talking about the border is because they wanted to, the persistent critics. You can't pass a bill without dealing with a Democratic president and a Democratic Senate."

While the border legislation is dead on arrival in the House of Representatives and likely fail to even make it to the floor in the Senate, Mitch McConnell's understanding of what Republican voters will tolerate seems lackluster at best. The 82-year-old senator from Kentucky, who has been in office since 1985, has long been criticized for his unwillingness to support the priorities of the GOP grassroots, and the border bill is the latest iteration of that criticism. 

🚨Q: “Is it time for Mitch McConnell to go?”

TED CRUZ: “I think it is”

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— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) February 7, 2024