CENTRAL CITY, Iowa – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, rallied over 700 Iowans who attended U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson’s first BBQ Bash fundraiser at the Linn County Fairgrounds.
He joined other prominent Republicans and prospective 2024 presidential candidates who have visited Iowa this summer such as former Vice President Mike Pence, U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem. Two more will visit this week, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., will speak at Republican events on Monday and Tuesday and U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, will headline a Dallas County GOP fundraiser on Thursday.
Cruz gave plenty of “red meat” to the Republican faithful.
“I’m gonna commit a radical act. I’m gonna speak the truth. America is great! The Taliban are terrorists! Chinese communists are evil! America’s founding fathers were extraordinary patriots. Christopher Columbus discovering America was a good thing. George Washington was an American hero. Thomas Jefferson was an American hero. Police officers protect us and keep us safe. Israel is our friend. There is a difference between boys and girls. And the Wuhan virus came from Wuhan!” he exclaimed to cheers and applause.
Cruz pointed out that none of what he said would have been considered controversial five years ago.
“I want you to stop and think five years ago. Every one of those statements would have been utterly uncontroversial. Every one of those statements, everyone would agree with, and now uttering even one of those can get you canceled, can get you fired, can get you erased from social media,” he stated.
Cruz said Democrats and their leadership have gone “bat crap crazy” and added the Biden Administration had been a disaster.
“The past two weeks have been incredibly painful for every American, as we watch the catastrophe unfold in Afghanistan, as we see people clinging to the wheels of airplanes. And as we see Joe Biden afraid to stand up to terrorists. If you combine the radical ideology of the left with utter and complete incompetence, you get what we’ve got now,” he stated.
“Biden says we’re gonna pull out, but it doesn’t occur to him that we ought to have a plan to evacuate Americans who are there. We got to do an emergency evacuation. But it doesn’t occur to him that maybe holding on to the Bagram Airfield, a secure military base, would help in the evacuation,” Cruz added.
He noted that had the evacuation taken place at Bagram, the suicide bombing attacks that killed 13 U.S. servicemembers would have been less likely.
“We were all horrified when 13 servicemen lost their lives in a cowardly suicide bombing – 11 Marines, a sailor, and a soldier – were murdered in Afghanistan. And I’ll tell you, weakness from the American president plays a big part in attracting terrorists to attack us. And if we’d have been in Bagram, a secure military base with a secure perimeter designed to withstand hostile attacks, that attack, there’s a very good chance either wouldn’t have happened or the consequence was would have been much, much less severe,” Cruz argued.
He then stated that the U.S. should not abandon a single American or Afghani who wants to evacuate, regardless of the August 31 deadline.
Cruz said that America’s enemies are emboldened.
“Vladimir Putin is encouraged by the disaster in Afghanistan. Xi in China is encouraged by the disaster and Afghanistan. The Ayatollah in Iran is encouraged by the disaster in Afghanistan. The enemies of America, the next three years are going to be a very challenging time because they’re emboldened and they’re taking a measure of the man who is in the Oval Office. And it is not encouraging what they are seeing,” he stated.
Shifting to domestic policy, Cruz noted that the word “socialist” was fringe five years ago. Still, now the U.S. Senate is set to vote on U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders’ reconciliation budget bill. Sanders, a self-described “Democratic socialist,” was in Cedar Rapids on Sunday to promote his spending bill.
“Whatever tax you can think of, they want to increase. Individuals and families, your taxes are going up small businesses, your taxes are going up. Capital gains, your taxes are going up, the death tax, your taxes are going up. And let me tell you, in particular, these guys have a bull’s eye on rural America. They have a bull’s eye on farms and ranches with the death tax. They want to force families to sell their farms instead of passing it from one generation to the next. Joe Biden is proposing ending the stepped-up basis, which will destroy farms across Iowa and across the country. This is radical, and it is extreme,” he said.
Pointing to the southern border, Cruz said with over one million border crossings in the last seven months, the nation was on pace to see two million illegal border crossings in 2021, which would be the highest level of illegal immigration in 21 years.
He then focused on what some Democrats want to do with the Supreme Court.
“They’re coming after the court. They want to pack the court. And they want to fill it with radicals who will take away our free speech, who will take away our religious liberty, who will take away our Second Amendment. Well, we have a phrase in Texas, ‘come and take it,'” Cruz said.
He encouraged Republicans that there was hope even with the sea change in the ideology of the left and its impact on public policy.
“Throughout American history, there has been a natural pendulum to politics. Inevitably, one party gets in power. They go too far one direction, and the American people say, ‘hold on a second.’ And they pull us back in the direction of sanity. And as you see, the left galloping left and left and left. There are a whole lot of Americans saying, ‘what on earth are you guys talking about?'” Cruz explained.
He pointed out that Democrats rejected several of his amendments to the American Rescue Plan Act, such as not sending stimulus checks to illegal aliens and the incarcerated.
Cruz pointed to some Democrats who support the “abolish the police” movement.
“We love the men and women of blue, who strap on a gun and wear a badge and keep our community safe,” he said. “And we love our soldiers and sailors and airmen and Marines and our veterans across this country who defend our freedom.”
Cruz pointed out that Biden campaigned as a centrist but is not governing that way.
“His message was, ‘gosh, he was a centrist reasonable, moderate, no more mean, scary tweets.’ He was just going to move back to just, gently, the way things were before. Well, last seven months, how’s that worked out? They have handed the agenda over to the radicals. And I’ll tell you what’s happening all across this country. There is a tidal wave that is building,” he stated.
Cruz pointed out that Americans are getting “pissed off” over millions of small businesses shut down, schools closed, and freedom taken away during the pandemic.
“These tin pot socialists tick off the American people at their peril,” he said.
Cruz predicted that Iowa would send Hinson back to Congress in 2022, Republicans will hold all four congressional seats, and Democrats will lose control of the U.S. House and Senate.
“The Road to 2022 comes through Iowa. The road to the majority comes through, the road to revival comes through Iowa, and the road to bring America back to greatness comes through the great state of Iowa,” he concluded.
Cruz also campaigned for Nicole Hasso in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District on Sunday.
