Democrats’ top priority is to change the rules to stay in power, Cruz says

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Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said at a press conference Thursday that the Democrat push for Washington, D.C., statehood and to pack the Supreme Court is an effort to ensure that they can never lose their grip on power.

His remarks came on the same day the U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to make D.C. the country’s 51st state.  The vote was passed 216 to 208 in a strictly party-line vote and will now move to the Senate.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., cheered the statehood passage as a "momentous day for American democracy." Democrats argued statehood was a matter of civil rights and a necessary step to right a historic injustice of taxing D.C. residents without affording them any representation in Congress. 

Cruz called the effort "fundamentally corrupt."

"Their first priority is to change the rules to stay in power," he said. He also said the push is evidence that Democrats don’t believe in Democracy.

BIDEN WHITE HOUSE OFFICIALLY SUPPORTS MAKING DC THE 51ST STATE

"If they want to stay in power, there’s a real simple path for that. Convince voters your ideas are right," he said. "But that’s too complicated. Sometimes the voters disagree."

He said Democrats are also trying to change voting rules in the country to essentially guarantee victories and dream of packing to the Supreme Court with "four left-wing radicals."

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"This is an assault, fundamentally, on the independence of the judiciary," he said.

Fox News' Marisa Schultz contributed to this report