Cruz: Nominate A ‘Genuine Conservative’

Sen. Ted Cruz said Wednesday that if he’s elected president on his first day in office he’ll “rip to shreds this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal” and direct the Department of Justice to investigate Planned Parenthood for any criminal activities.

Cruz became the third Republican candidate for president to visit Arkansas when he spoke Wednesday before a crowd of several hundred supporters and onlookers at Republican Party of Arkansas headquarters. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee announced he was running for president in Hope in May, while Donald Trump spoke to the party’s annual Reagan-Rockefeller Dinner in Hot Springs in July.

Cruz said in his speech that he had raised the most in direct contributions of any of the 17 candidates: $14.3 million from more than 175,000 contributions averaging $68 apiece. Speaking earlier to reporters, he said that in the 100 hours after last week’s debate in Cleveland, he had raised $1.1 million from 10,000 people at his website.

Cruz cast himself in the mold of President Reagan while comparing President Obama to President Carter.

Arkansas will have 40 delegates to the Republican National Convention, with 37 decided by the voters and apportioned according to the percentage of votes that candidates receive. Cruz said Arkansas will play an important role in the presidential election.

Following the traditional early state votes in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, candidates will be on the ballot in six Southern states, including Arkansas, on March 1, 2016. It’s being called the “SEC primary” after the Southeastern Conference.

“The role of Arkansas and the other states throughout the SEC is going to be to make sure that the next Republican nominee for president is a real and genuine conservative. That’s the only way we win. If we nominate Democrat-lite, we will lose once again,” he said.

Cruz said his other first-day actions would be rescinding “every single illegal and unconstitutional executive action” taken by President Obama; instructing government agencies “that the persecution of religious liberty ends today”; and moving the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

Cruz said while in office he then would repeal Obamacare, instruct the Department of Education “which should be abolished” to end Common Core; rebuild the military; allow military personnel to carry firearms; secure the border and end so-called “sanctuary cities” where federal immigration laws aren’t enforced; and institute a flat tax “so that every American can fill out his or her taxes on a postcard.” He said he would abolish the IRS and then jokingly said he would place the 90,000 newly unemployed IRS agents on the border facing Mexico.

“Imagine, sir, you’ve traveled thousands of miles in the blazing sun. You’re swimming across the Rio Grande, and the first thing you see is 90,000 IRS agents. You’d turn around and go home too,” he joked.

Cruz defended his remark in July that the Iran deal would “make the Obama administration the world’s leading financier of radical Islamic terrorism.” He said the deal would provide Iran with money that jihadists could use to “murder Americans and Israelis and Europeans.” He criticized Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush for saying his remark went too far.

“Let me give y’all a real simple principle: Truth is not rhetoric,” he said.

Cruz ended his speech by pointing out that his father had fought and was imprisoned in the Cuban revolution by the dictator Fulgencio Batista before coming to America. Speaking to reporters prior to his address, he said he remained opposed to normalizing relations with Cuba despite the benefits it might provide to Arkansas farmers. He said Cuba has exported terrorism, and the Castros are oppressive dictators.

He was enthusiastically introduced by state Rep. Bob Ballinger, R-Hindsville, who floated the idea of Cruz nominating Sen. Tom Cotton as his running mate.