Sen. Ted Cruz (R) of Texas vented his frustration on the Senate floor Wednesday night after Cory Booker (D-N.J.) objected in an unusual exchange of words to a bipartisan bill from Cruz that would take tougher measures against AI-generated fake revenge porn.
The conflict is a sign that Democrats do not want to give the embattled Texas incumbent any legislative victory before Election Day.
Cruz's bill, the Take It Down Act, appeared to be passed as part of a routine legislative session before Congress leaves Washington for a six-week recess ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
But Booker filed a last-minute objection to Cruz's bill, which is co-sponsored by Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Jacky Rosen (Nev.), Laphonza Butler (Calif.), John Hickenlooper (Colo.), Raphael Warnock (Ga.) and Martin Heinrich (N.M.).
Booker gave no reason for the objection, infuriating Cruz, who is in the midst of a tough re-election race, in the Senate.
“I find it sad that the senator from New Jersey chose not to provide an explanation for his objection,” Cruz said, noting that New Jersey native Francesca Mani had testified before the Commerce Committee about the dangers of deepfake revenge porn.
“He has chosen not to give Francesca a reason why her request is being denied,” Cruz said after Booker objected.
Normally, senators explain their objections in plenary.
A frustrated Cruz suspects politics plays a role.
He wondered aloud whether Booker was trying to score “partisan political points” by denying him a legislative victory while he was in the midst of a tough re-election race.
“It has not escaped anyone's attention that this is an election year, and I will say that, in the absence of a single substantive objection, the obvious conclusion is that this objection is being made because there are elections in less than six weeks,” he fumed.
“I really hope he's not standing here denying help to victims of this abuse just to score party political points. I'd like to think he wouldn't do something like that. But to believe he wouldn't do something like that, he has to actually explain a reason for his objection,” he said.
Booker has been a longtime ally of Cruz's general election opponent, Rep. Colin Allred (D-Texas), who had raised a whopping $41.2 million for his Senate campaign as of late June.
Last year, Booker held a passionate fundraiser for Allred on the social media platform X.
“I’ve known this man for years. So believe me when I say, we need people like Colin in the Senate,” Booker said in a video pitch while standing next to the Texas congressman in November.
Cruz indicated Wednesday evening that he had already presented his bill to his Democratic and Republican colleagues two weeks ago to address potential objections.
He expected it to be included on the list of uncontroversial items that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Republican leaders agreed to include in the list of unfinished bills before they left town for the fall campaign.
But Booker's belated objection put an end to that.
“It was passed by 99 senators. He had a week and a half to object. Yesterday, this legislation was about to pass, and an hour before it was going to pass, the senator from New Jersey objected,” Cruz said on the floor, annoyed that his New Jersey colleague had blocked the bill at the last minute.
Jeff Giertz, a spokesman for Booker, accused Cruz of staging the floor confrontation to score political points for himself.
“Senator Cruz refused to work together to address the legitimate concerns of Senator Booker and other Senators about the bill. It is clear from Senator Cruz’s social media posts that his stunt on the floor was not about advancing bipartisan legislation, but a cynical attempt to score political points in his neck-and-neck race with Colin Allred. Senator Cruz is attempting to create controversy where there is none and where there should only be cooperation and collaboration — something he clearly has no interest in,” he said.
Booker's aide said: “The online sharing of non-consensual explicit images is a serious and urgent issue that Senator Booker has a track record of addressing.”
Cruz's bill would criminalize the publication of deepfake pornography, known as “nonconsensual intimate images,” and require major tech companies to take steps to remove such images within 48 hours of receiving a valid request from a victim.
The legislation is intended to protect victims like Mani, a 15-year-old New Jersey high school student who discovered last year that boys in her class had used AI to take nude photos of her and her classmates and distribute them online.
Mani testified before the Commerce Committee in June that “without Senator Cruz’s bill, we will continue to have teenagers creating AI deepfake images of girls.”
“The lack of laws speaks volumes. We girls are on our own, and since 96 percent of deepfake AI victims are women and children, we are also very vulnerable and need your help,” she told senators.
Cruz pointed out on the floor that his bill contains some of the same language Booker has sought in another bill, the Shield Act, sponsored by Klobuchar. The Senate passed that bill on a voice vote on July 10. It would create federal criminal liability for people who share private, sexually explicit or nude photos without consent.
Cruz and Klobuchar's Take It Down Act goes one step further by criminalizing sexually explicit images created using AI.
“The Shield Act was significantly amended at the request of my colleague from New Jersey before he would pass it,” Cruz said. “Now it appears that the senator from New Jersey no longer supports the language that he voted for and the language that he negotiated and helped draft.”
Klobuchar said after the meeting she wasn't sure exactly why Booker objected.
“We have to have it done by the end of the year. I'm going to try to talk to Cory,” she said. “There's something different for Cory than what was on the bill [the Shield Act] that was passed by the Senate. … I don't know. I'm going to talk to him.”
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