After 21-hour speech, Cruz votes to open debate on budget

An hour after Cruz ended his faux-filibuster, the Senate voted 100-0 to open debate on a spending bill to fund the government.

This afternoon at 12 PM, after 21 hours and 19 minutes of Obamacare opposition complete with Nazi Germany analogies, bedtime stories, Duck Dynasty anecdotes and Darth Vader impressions, Senator Ted Cruz ceded the Senate floor for a vote to open debate on a stopgap funding bill to avert government shutdown. An hour after Cruz ended his faux-filibuster, the Senate voted 100-0 to open debate. Despite his all-night crusade, Cruz joined the vote to open debate.

After the speech, Cruz told reporters that he hoped his speech “gave people an opportunity to express their views and to engage in this debate.” In response to criticisms that his speech was political theater, Cruz said it was “all about elevating the debate in the public, and giving the chance to speak.”

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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the Texas Senators’ speech “a big waste of time.”

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Senator John McCain said he respected Cruz’s right to deliver his “extended oratory,” but took issue with his comparison of the fight to defund Obamacare with the threat of Nazi Germany. “I resoundingly reject that allegation,” McCain said. McCain called the allegation “wrong” and said it “does a great disservice” to those who served in World War II.

On Wednesday, the NOW with Alex Wagner panelists discussed Ted Cruz’s fake filibuster, his shot on the national stage, and the looming government shutdown.