Ted Cruz's Paris Climate Agreement Tweet Bashed by Greta Thunberg and AOC

Despite the fact that less than a day has transpired since President Biden's term as commander-in-chief of the nation began, political adversaries such as Senator Ted Cruz have wasted no time in slamming the earliest decisions the new administration has made.

Of course, this type of rhetoric against left-leaning policy changes is nothing new to the senator, who has been marred in controversy since he took office, and more recently, since defeating Democratic candidate Beto O'Rourke to uphold his seat and a Republican Senate majority under the Trump presidency. But, how long is Cruz to hold such a powerful government position? Here's a breakdown of his time in the Senate and when his term is supposed to end. 

Although he has had a storied involvement in local politics for much of his adult life, Cruz didn't undertake his most notable endeavor as a U.S. Senator until 2012 (with some assistance from GOP Tea Party members) who he secured a nomination through. 

Once elected, Cruz went on a mission to undo Barack Obama's famed Obamacare plan, becoming the key figure in a 2012 government shutdown that stemmed from deliberations regarding the healthcare effort.

In 2016, Cruz mounted a Republican primary presidential campaign against Donald Trump, who he lost to in a landslide. Two years later, he was pitted against Democratic nominee Beto O'Rourke for his seat in the Senate, a campaign Cruz decisively won. Beyond his hard-fought political battles, the Texas representative's current term is set to end on Jan. 3, 2025.

Most recently, Cruz made headlines for a statement and subsequent tweet he penned directly criticizing one of President Biden's first executive actions, rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement.

"By rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, President Biden indicates he’s more interested in the views of the citizens of Paris than in the jobs of the citizens of Pittsburgh. This agreement will do little to affect the climate and will harm the livelihoods of Americans," Cruz slammed the president's decision by writing to his constituents, including a link to a document that described his stance in more detail.

The information that Cruz provided essentially suggests that rejoining the agreement would be detrimental to American citizens' earning power and ability to find jobs in the energy sector. The analytics he linked in the press release claim that "the regulations necessary to meet the original commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement would result in the loss of 400,000 American manufacturing jobs and would cost families of four $20,000 in lost income over a nearly 20-year period."

Since speaking out with his disagreement regarding rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement, Cruz has been met with pushback by prominent left-leaning political figures such as Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and climate activist Greta Thunberg. The former decided to quote Cruz's original tweet about wanting to remain out of the agreement with her own response, questioning her colleague's ethics and referencing the events that transpired on Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, 2021.

"Nice tweet Sen. Cruz! Quick question: do you also believe the Geneva Convention was about the views of the citizens of Geneva? Asking for everyone who believes US Senators should be competent and not undermine our elections to incite insurrection against the United States," Ocasio-Cortez wrote to Cruz, garnering hundreds of thousands of likes.

Meanwhile, Greta, who has made a name for herself over the past few years as the youngest and most vocal opposition to climate change, mocked Cruz's statement with her own tweet, "So happy that USA has finally rejoined the Pittsburgh Agreement. Welcome back!" She wrote in response to the Senator's claims that the Pennsylvania city's manufacturing jobs would be deeply affected by the nation rejoining the agreement.