WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 (UPI) — Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz appeared on the Capitol steps in Washington, D.C., Wednesday — where they slammed the Obama administration’s deal with Iran, among other things.
Trump and Cruz, two of the GOP’s prominent candidates in the 2016 race, each criticized the nuclear pact as naieve and said it could only embolden Tehran to act against the West.
“If Senate Democrats decide that party loyalty matters more than national security and if Republican leadership decides that showboating is more important than stopping this deal, then the single most important issue in 2016 will be stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” Cruz, who spoke first, told the crowd.
The Obama administration struck the deal earlier this summer, but it still needs to be approved by Congress.
A somewhat surprising frontrunner for the party nomination, Trump went further — saying if he’s elected, four American hostages being held in Iran will be returned before he even sets foot in the Oval Office.
“I’ve never seen something so incompetently negotiated — and I mean never,” Trump said.
Though rivals for the GOP nomination, Trump said he admires Cruz and said the men share a genuine respect for one another.
“I like him. He likes me. He’s backed me 100 percent,” Trump said. “Ted Cruz was out there and he really backed me very strongly and I always respected that. He asked me to come along and I guess he figured we’d get a big crowd and we certainly have.”
Former vice presidential candidate and Alaska governor Sarah Palin also took the podium Wednesday, where she criticized Democrats’ handling of foreign policy and the war on terror.
“You don’t reward terrorism. You kill it,” she said.
