Cruz: “This Nation Needs a Wartime President to Defend It”

Texas senator Ted Cruz kicked off Thursday’s Republican Jewish Coalition presidential forum in Washington with a speech filled with applause lines that revved up the crowd.

Cruz focused primarily on national security and foreign policy, touting his record in the Senate and displaying his knack for rhetorical bombs. It went over well with the audience.

His biggest round of applause came when he made a pledge about the nuclear deal with Iran. “If I am elected president, I have pledged in my very first day in office to rip to shreds this catastrophic deal,” he said. Audience members cheered and stood in their seats.

Cruz earned cheers for his characterization of the current stakes. “I believe this nation needs a wartime president to defend it,” he said. Another first-day-in-office promise—”we will begin the process of moving the American embassy to Jerusalem”—also earned cheers. 

He excoriated President Obama for being a “an apologist for radical Islamic terrorism” and mocked John Kerry for the secretary of state’s feckless response to terrorist attacks of recent months in France.

Perhaps in anticipation of a question that would come after his speech about his lack of experience, Cruz spent some of his address listing off some of his Senate accomplishments. Or, at least, positions he has taken in Congress. “When John Kerry was nominated, only 3 senators voted against his nomination,” Cruz said. “Never have I been prouder to be one of those three.”

He spoke about his work with New Jersey Democratic senator Bob Menendez to fund a reward for catching Hamas terrorists who kidnapped and killed an Israeli teen, Naftali Fraenkel, with dual American citizenship.

Although the speech emphasized Cruz’s hawkish foreign policy views, the Republican presidential candidate also touched on his opposition to American military efforts in Libya, Egypt, and Syria to depose dictators. It was part of what he called a “misguided foreign policy of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and unfortunately too many Republicans in this town.” 

That was a lightly veiled shot at one of his rivals, Marco Rubio, who has taken a more aggressive stance on military intervention in the Middle East. “If we are to defeat our enemy, we need to be clear-eyed, that toppling a government and allowing a terrorist organization to take over a nation is not benefitting our national security,” Cruz said.

On the question of his fitness for office, which came from one of the attendees, Cruz echoed Rubio when the Florida senator receives similar comparison to first-term senator Barack Obama. Cruz, however, gave his answer his own personal flair.

“When the media asks, ‘gosh, aren’t you like Barack Obama?’, my reaction to reporters is, ‘I thought you thought that was a good thing!” he said to laughs and applause.

“Last I checked, he won two presidential elections,” Cruz continued. “And listen, Barack Obama is not a bad president because he was a senator. Barack Obama is a bad president because he’s an unmitigated socialist who won’t stand up and defend the United States of America.”

Cruz launched into a passionate defense of strong ideological leadership from a presidential candidate, noting both examples from Obama and Ronald Reagan as different sides of the same coin.

“When Barack Obama said he wanted to fundamentally transform this country, he meant it,” Cruz said, and one audience member could be heard saying “Yep” in agreement. 

“We need to nominate a president who is as committed to conservative principles as Barack Obama is to liberal ones.”

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