Cruz: I won't be 'an emperor'

Ted Cruz had a message for conservatives rabid for the repeal of Obamacare: Don't expect "Day One" results.

"The president doesn’t have the constitutional authority to end it on Day One," he said in an interview aired Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union. "The only way to end it is to repeal that statute … we will repeal Obamacare, but unlike Obama, I don’t intend as president to be — to use his word — an emperor."


It's a rare appeal to pragmatism from a candidate who typically stokes the conservative id. It came initially as a response to questions about immigration, when he argue that presidents have the obligation to enforce the law on the books, whether they agree with it or not. Cruz rejected an immigration approach proposed by Donald Trump to send deportation agents door to door to round up immigrants in the country illegally.

"I don’t intend to send jackboots to knock on your door and every door in America," Cruz said. "That’s not how we enforce the law in any crime.

During an otherwise typical rebuke of Democratic and Republican leadership in Washington, Cruz paused to heap praise on longtime Senate Democrats who he said had shown principle: Ted Kennedy, Mike Mansfield and Robert Byrd. He said all three of the former senators would have rejected President Barack Obama's approach to separation-of-powers issues.

"What is amazing is how servile the entire Democratic Party is right now. I guess it’s just the ends justify the means," he said.

Cruz was equally unsparing with his critique of Republicans who say he might crush Republicans down-ballot if he's the party's nominee. Cruz pointed out that Bob Dole, John McCain and Mitt Romney were "clobbered in the purple states" that Republicans need to win, and he argued that a more conservative candidate would give like-mined voters a better reason to run out.