Cruz: House Speaker fight due to 'disappointing' election and because GOP doesn't 'follow orders

Sen. Ted Cruz

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, blamed the ongoing stalemate in the House Speaker race on Republican's poor performance in the midterm elections and GOP lawmakers refusal to "follow orders" like Democrats.

Cruz made the comments during a discussion on his podcast "The Verdict" on Wednesday, but he avoided weighing in on whether he supported Rep. Kevin McCarthy's, R-Calif., bid for speaker.

"A big part of the reason this is playing out is because the election was disappointing," Cruz said. "The election — we did a lot less — Republicans did a lot less in the election than we should have. We should have a majority in the Senate. We should have a big majority in the House."

"If we'd come out of the election and it was a 30-35 vote majority in the House, I doubt this fight would be playing out. At that level, I think Kevin McCarthy would have had, pretty easily, the votes to be elected speaker. And if you win a big victory, that is typically the result," he said.

Cruz went on to say that although Democrats had a similar slim majority under former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, they would still "follow orders" for the party leadership.

"The Democrats are command-and-control. The Democrats are authoritarian, the Democrats follow orders. It's a strength of theirs, and it's a weakness of theirs," he said.