- Senator Cruz criticized Ford’s CEO for skipping a key hearing.
- He said Jim Farley fears questions on EV-related losses.
- Cruz also accused Ford of abusing EV tax credit rules.
The Senate’s big moment to grill automakers on why new cars cost a small mortgage was supposed to be simple. A bunch of CEOs show up, lawmakers ask pointed questions, America gets some answers.
Instead, the hearing veered off course and turned into something closer to a political miniseries, complete with a subplot involving Ford’s CEO and accusations of cowardice from the chair.
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After Ford CEO Jim Farley declined to appear on the original date, Ted Cruz went on a verbal joyride. He told Politico that Farley was too scared to testify and suggested the Ford boss might be embarrassed by losses tied to EV investments.
Political Theater Takes The Wheel
“Well, for whatever reason, it appears Jim Farley was terrified of testifying before Congress,” Cruz said in the Politico interview. “I don’t know if he was scared about having lost $19 billion for Ford shareholders on the misguided Ford Lightning or if he was embarrassed at having tried to swindle American taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars by gaming the expiration of the EV tax credit.”
“But for whatever reason, he made the decision that testifying to Congress was too terrifying for him to be willing to do so.” Asked if he would issue a subpoena forcing Farley to attend, Cruz replied “time will tell.”
Beyond the optics, Cruz has legislative momentum in mind. His committee is helping draft the surface transportation reauthorization bill, and he says the hearing is part of that effort.
“We are going to be legislating on surface transportation and apparently Ford has made the decision that they are not interested in being part of the legislative process,” Cruz said.
On Ford’s behalf, spokesperson Dave Tovar reaffirmed the company’s position, stating, “as we’ve said all along, we’re committed to appropriately engaging on issues that impact our company, our employees and the industry and we look forward to continuing to work with leaders such as Senator Cruz.”
I Will If You Will
Ford’s stance is that it is happy to testify at the hearing created to look into the affordability of new vehicles, but only if there’s a level playing field.
As things stand, Cruz is expecting Farley to attend, yet is happy for Telsa to send Lars Moravy, a senior engineering executive, rather than CEO Elon Musk. And Ford doesn’t think that’s fair. Neither does GM’s boss, Mary Barra, who hinted she would only attend if everyone else did.
Cruz defended leaving Musk out, saying his presence would turn the hearing into a Q&A on Doge and distract from the affordability topic. Lawmakers want to talk about prices, emissions rules, fuel economy standards and how regulation shapes what Americans pay at the dealership.
