Jorge Ramos interviewed Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) for an October 28 episode of "AMERICA with Jorge Ramos." Here's an excerpt:

Jorge Ramos: I was listening to a speech by your father Rafael last July in Salt Lake City and he made a comparison between- of course he was born in Cuba.


Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): Right.

Ramos: He made a comparison between Fidel Castro the dictator and President Obama. Do you agree with it?


Cruz: Well, I will say that it is an incredible blessing to be the child of an immigrant. To be the child of someone like my father who fled oppression and came here with nothing. And one of the real benefits of that is you appreciate how precious and fragile is the freedom we have here. My father has seen what happens when-

Ramos: And it is a terrible dictatorship in Cuba. But is it fair to compare it with the United States? I mean is President Barack Obama a dictator from your point of view?

Cruz: Well the point he made- look obviously there are enormous differences between President Obama and Fidel Castro.

Ramos: -we have freedom of the press, we have democracy, political parties-

Cruz: Absolutely, but his point was he was focusing on a statement President Obama made at the State of the Union where if he said if Congress doesn't act to enact his agenda that he will do it anyway on his own. And one of the things I am very concerned about is the explosion of power in the federal government. We've got the NSA seizing our cell phone records, our emails, and we have seen this president expand presidential power in a way that is contrary to the Constitution.


Ramos: You think President Obama has been abusing his power?

Cruz: I think he has absolutely been abusing his power and when you have a president who says "regardless of whether Congress acts I'm going to force my agenda on the American people," that's wrong, that's not consistent with our constitutional protections.


@fusion