Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) has not been shy about his criticism of the Obama administration’s handling of the nuclear negotiations with Iran.
Cruz visited MSNBC’s Morning Joe Tuesday to promote his new book A Time For Truth, and he highlighted that Tuesday was the deadline for the nuclear deal that has since been extended to July 9. The negotiations over a nuclear Iran have consumed the past three years and have been continuously extended.
"Under this deal, Iran would get a $50 billion signing bonus," Cruz said. "That money would be used to fund Hamas, to fund Hezbollah, to fund terrorists throughout the world ... It would mean, without exaggeration, that if this deal goes through and billions of dollars flow in, that the United States government becomes in effect a leading financier of terrorism because those dollars will be used to murder Americans, to murder Israelis, to murder Europeans."
The latest reports of the negotiations is that President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry have backed down on inspections of Iran’s military bases. Both Obama and Kerry have cited that the reason they have backed down is because of the justification that the U.S. would never allow Iran to inspect our military bases. Cruz said that he found the moral equivalency nonsensical and "ridiculous."
"The reason why the world has imposed sanctions against Iran is because Iran is the leading state sponsor of terrorism," Cruz said. "The Ayatollah is a radical theocratic zealot who regularly leads chants of ‘Death to America.’"
Cruz added that the Senate should stand up and oppose the deal. He also mentioned that he fought hard for the sanctions not to be lifted unless the president gets an affirmative majority from Congress.