Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) unloaded on the Obama administration tonight during an interview on Fox News, saying that the $150 billion that the Obama administration gave Iran paid for the missiles that Iran fired at U.S. forces in Iraq on Tuesday night.
“If you look at Iran policy I think you’ve seen a dramatic shift. Under Barack Obama, the policy was appeasement,” Cruz said. “The policy under the disastrous Iranian nuclear deal under Obama was to give over $100 billion to Iran. They literally flew $1.7 billion in cash in unmarked bills on pallets in the dead of night into Iran.”
Cruz continued, “In a very real sense, the missiles that we saw fired on U.S. service men and women tonight were paid for by the billions the Obama administration flooded the ayatollah with and if history teaches anything its don’t give billions of dollars who hate you and want to kill you.”
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TRANSCRIPT:
HANNITY: Here’s my take, senator, and I think it’s fairly simple: You don’t get to shoot American drones out of the sky; You don’t get to take an American hostage to disrupt the lifeblood of the world economy; You don’t get to kill Americans like they did at the end of December; You don’t get to attack our embassy to kill Americans and our interests abroad; You don’t get to be the number one state sponsor of terror; You don’t fight proxy wars; You don’t get to take over the entire region and threaten to wipe Israel off the map and act the way they are acting without expecting a response. I don’t want a war. I don’t think you do either, senator. But there has to be a response, doesn’t there?
CRUZ: Sean, I think that’s exactly right. Iran is exceptionally dangerous. If you look at Soleimani, taking Soleimani out, he was the most dangerous terrorist in the world. The department of defense has told us that he was directly responsible for the deaths of at least 603 U.S. Servicemen and women. He has directed terror groups across the globe, including Hamas, including Hezbollah, targeting Americans, targeting civilians and taking him out has made America safer. Now as we look at this missile attack tonight, we see the Ayatollah Khamenei striking back and targeting America, targeting our bases. But I will say this and I think what you cautioned in your opening monologue is exactly right. We are not going to get into an extended land war in the Middle East. We are not going to do it. When you see Democrats and the media lighting their hair on fire and saying that we are headed to World War III, this is hysteria driven by the fact that they hate Donald Trump, because it used to be the case that we could all come together and say that when there’s a terrorist who’s targeting America, in this case, Soleimani, had just directed an attack on the U.S. Embassy in recent days, that taking out a terrorist is a good thing. I commend President Trump for following principles of peace through strength but at the same time, we are not going to be sending our sons and daughters into harm’s way for an extended land battle in the Middle East.
HANNITY: One of the things we should be thankful for living in the greatest country God above ever gave man, this country, the United States of America, is our great military and our sophisticated weaponry. One of the things that we can confirm is that the Iranian economy has been impacted greatly. Whoever thought of the fact of bribing mullahs and bribing Kim Jong-il would work? The question is this. They have three major refineries in Iran, senator. Three. I would imagine those refineries blew up one day. They got themselves a domestic problem, because that’s going to result in major poverty for the people of Iran. If they want regime change, that’s up to them. Maybe we could help them with arms and help them in some ways, but we are not sending our sons and daughters there.
CRUZ: If you look at Iran policy I think you’ve seen a dramatic shift. Under Barack Obama, the policy was appeasement. The policy under the disastrous Iranian nuclear deal under Obama was to give over $100 billion to Iran. They literally flew $1.7 billion in cash in unmarked bills on pallets in the dead of night into Iran. In a very real sense, the missiles that we saw fired on U.S. service men and women tonight were paid for by the billions the Obama administration flooded the ayatollah with and if history teaches anything its don’t give billions of dollars who hate you and want to kill you.