The Biden administration has been selling off materials for the southern border wall since at least August 2023, with some of these being auctioned off for as low as $5 in removed listings online. In assessing this “brazen” action on the border, Cruz argued that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’s hatred for President-elect Donald Trump is also directed at his supporters, and the push to sell off border wall materials is part of a larger effort to “frustrate the will of the voters.”

“Let me be very clear to every official at the Department of Homeland Security or anywhere else who approves selling off incredibly expensive portions of the border wall for $5 a piece, you are engaged in theft of government property and you should expect that the Department of Justice to investigate you and prosecute you!” Cruz said on Fox News’s Hannity. “This is a brazen abuse of power, and it reflects the views of this White House and Democrats across the board.”

Cruz used an analogy of a sheriff losing an election and choosing to sell off squad cars worth $50,000 for only $100 simply out of pettiness. He argued that Biden’s auctioning of border wall materials is reflective of this. 

On Monday, Trump called on the president to stop selling border wall pieces and “giving it away,” arguing it “really worked” in deterring illegal immigration and it was “very expensive” to build. 

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R-TX) said his state will begin to make plans to purchase materials for the southern border wall and “give it to Trump.” He added that he has “a billion dollars in my pocket” and aims to “buy it all” for the president-elect

On the topic of Biden’s pardons, Cruz predicted the president would pardon “everyone they can think of,” arguing the administration is “terrified” of the rule of law and its application to them. Besides granting his son, Hunter Biden, a lengthy pardon spanning over 10 years, the president has also commuted almost 1,500 sentences for people. 

The president’s pardons, as well as the possibility of him granting preemptive pardons to members of the Jan. 6 committee, have been discussed greatly this month, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) encouraging the president to “very seriously” consider giving these. Sanders added that “there are a lot of Republicans” who do not support jailing these members, and that the idea floated by Trump would not go “very far.”

Meanwhile, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has warned that the president’s mass pardons could make “a precedent we don’t want to set,” while also arguing a pardon to him and the other committee members would be “unnecessary.”