Cruz: I may have ‘misspoken’ about claim on guns

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Tuesday admitted he might have “misspoken” when he said he had lobbied Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) for hearings on letting U.S. troops carry personal firearms on military bases. 

McCain said Monday that he and his staff hadn’t heard from Cruz on the topic.

{mosads}“You know, I was fascinated to hear that because I haven’t heard a thing about it from him. Nor has my staff heard from his staff,” McCain told reporters on Monday. “Where did that come from? I have not a clue.

“I’d be glad to discuss the issue and see if we need a hearing, but it came as a complete surprise to me that he had been pressing me,” McCain said.

Cruz said Tuesday he had pressed McCain’s committee on the issue.

“Now, I will acknowledge, I may have misspoken in New Hampshire when I said I had been pressing John McCain. What I had been pressing is the Armed Services Committee, and John McCain is the new chairman of it,” Cruz said during an interview on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom.” 

The 2016 presidential hopeful and Armed Services Committee member said he had raised the issue at panel hearings and sent a letter to former Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) on the topic. He added, “but I had not communicated that to John directly although I had at a hearing, and will continue to raise it with John McCain because the committee ought to look at, listen to the military’s arguments.”

A Cruz spokeswoman said the senator’s office is now drafting a similar letter to McCain.

Cruz and other lawmakers argue that, if soldiers are able to carry private firearms on military installations, they might be able to prevent mass shootings, such as the two that have occurred at Fort Hood. 

“The military brass opposes this. We ought to hear their arguments, but I’m a big defender of defending the Second Amendment rights of everyone, including our soldiers,” Cruz said.

Their differences aside, Cruz said he likes McCain and said the veteran lawmaker “can always be counted on for a good quote.”