Ted Cruz slammed Republican leaders in Congress on Thursday for surrendering on the Iranian nuclear deal and Planned Parenthood.
The Texas senator and GOP presidential candidate told reporters in his Capitol Hill office that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and House Speaker John Boehner (Ohio) have admitted defeat by refusing to shut down the government.
Cruz wants to pass a continuing resolution that would prohibit funding for the "catastrophic" nuclear agreement with Iran and defund Planned Parenthood, a move that would likely prompt President Obama to veto funding for the federal government and trigger a shutdown.
Republican leadership, Cruz said, has already presented a "preemptory surrender" in the fight against Planned Parenthood and the Iran deal by promising to avoid a shutdown.
"When you have a radical in the White House who will exploit that promise, what it means in effect is that Republican leadership will support every failed big government policy of President Obama," Cruz said.
Cruz said Republicans have "backed down" in the past when attempting to squash Obamacare and the president’s executive action on immigration despite speaking out against such policies in the past.
Cruz criticized McConnell and Boehner for refusing to consider a three-pronged plan to fight the Iranian nuclear deal that he outlined in a letter to both leaders earlier this month.
Neither McConnell nor Boehner have responded to the proposal.
"I would readily sing the praises of Republican leadership if they just stood up and led. And yet it appears they have no interest in doing so," Cruz said.
Cruz likened Republican leaders to football coaches who forfeit every game before it starts, thereby achieving a "perfect losing record."
Cruz suggested that Republicans’ efforts to block the nuclear deal do not live up to their warnings about its implications for national security.
"Republican leadership says this nuclear deal is the single greatest threat to the national security of America, that the Ayatollah Khamenei with a nuclear weapon poses an unacceptable risk of millions of Americans, millions of Israelis, millions of Europeans being murdered," Cruz said.
"If leadership really believes that, why on Earth would we not use every single constitutional tool we have to prevent that? Is there any more important obligation for members of Congress than to protect the national security of this country and the lives of millions of Americans?"