Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said he advised President Trump not to “miss this opportunity” ahead of the strikes on Iran.
“I spent the entire day with President Trump on Friday, right before he launched these attacks. He and I discussed this at length on Friday,” Cruz said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” “My counsel to him was that the Iranian regime has never been weaker, that it was teetering, and now was the time.”
Cruz said the president “acted decisively, and Iran no longer being led by a theocratic, murderous dictator, that makes America much, much safer.”
“President Trump’s decision to launch this decisive action against Iran is the single most important decision of his presidency,” Cruz said. “I think he laid out powerfully and effectively why he is taking this action. He is taking this action because the government of Iran is a profound and malign influence; they have been the leading state-sponsor of terrorism for 47 years.”
Cruz said Mr. Trump called off active diplomacy amid talks between the U.S. and Iran “because the diplomacy was an abject failure.”
“The Iranians approached the diplomacy with arrogance, with absolute hubris,” Cruz said. “They said they would not stop enriching no matter what.”
Cruz said Mr. Trump understood that the Iranian negotiations were just a “stall tactic.” The Texas Republican said he told the president that “there’s only one deal you should accept, and it’s the deal that you offered Maduro.”
“If you want to leave and flee the country, you can do so,” Cruz said. “Anything else is unacceptable, and Khamenei made his choice.”
