Ted Cruz's threat to 'woke CEOs' was 'the most openly corrupt thing any Senator has said,' ethics expert says

A former head of the Office of Government Ethics called Ted Cruz's column on "woke CEOs" "corrupt."

In the column, Cruz expressed his anger at corporations objecting to Georgia's new voting laws.

"This time, we won't look the other way on Coca-Cola's $12 billion in back taxes owed," Cruz wrote.

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An expert in government ethics has described Ted Cruz's newspaper column on "woke CEOs" as the "most openly corrupt thing any Senator has said."

The Texas senator, in a Wall Street Journal column published last week, expressed his anger at the decision by a number of corporations, including Coca-Cola, to object to Georgia's controversial new voting law.

Cruz faced a backlash to the column for suggesting that, "this time," he and other Republican lawmakers would stop offering corporations potentially unethical tax breaks and other multibillion-dollar exemptions in return for financial contributions to their political causes.

"This is the point in the drama when Republicans usually shrug their shoulders, call these companies 'job creators,' and start to cut their taxes. Not this time," Cruz wrote in the op-ed.

"This time, we won't look the other way on Coca-Cola's $12 billion in back taxes owed."

"This time, when Major League Baseball lobbies to preserve its multibillion-dollar antitrust exception, we'll say no thank you. This time, when Boeing asks for billions in corporate welfare, we'll simply let the Export-Import Bank expire."

Walter Shaub, a former director of the Office of Government Ethics, said on Twitter that Cruz had appeared to admit that he and others had sold "access" in exchange for funding.

"It's the part everyone knows: these crooks sell access. Others have the sense not to admit it. This is why our republic is broken. Immoral politicians selling power we've entrusted to them like it's theirs to sell," Shaub tweeted.

Cruz also said that he would no longer take money from corporate political-action funds, the groups that pool donations from corporations toward specific campaigns, such as Cruz's Senate campaign.

Cruz wrote: "In my nine years in the Senate, I've received $2.6 million in contributions from corporate political-action committees.

"Starting today, I no longer accept money from any corporate PAC. I urge my GOP colleagues at all levels to do the same.

"For too long, Republicans have allowed the left and their big-business allies to attack our values with no response."