ROCK RAPIDS, Iowa -- Even after U.S. intelligence experts cast doubt on North Korea's claim to have successfully tested a hydrogen bomb, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) likened the situation to looking into a "crystal ball" and emphasized the need to reverse the Obama administration's nuclear deal with Iran.
“When we look at North Korea it is like looking at a crystal ball. This is where Iran ends up if we continue on the same misguided path," Cruz said Wednesday to reporters before a campaign stop at Union Jacks Grill.
Despite the fact that the White House said earlier Wednesday that North Korea might not in fact have tested a hydrogen bomb, the Texas conservative and presidential candidate insisted that U.S. foreign policy needed to change.
Cruz laid blame on President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, claiming they allowed a “megalomaniacal maniac to acquire nuclear weapons, and now potentially a hydrogen weapon.”
"It’s worth remembering we’re here because of the Clinton administration,” he continued.
“This underscores the gravity of the threats we are facing right now and also the sheer folly of the Obama-Clinton foreign policy,” Cruz explained, even going on to criticize Wendy Sherman, a former State Department official who helped lead the recent Iran talks as well as the North Korea negotiations during Bill Clinton’s administration.
“They recruited back Wendy Sherman, the one person on earth who has actually messed this up once, to be the negotiator on the failed Iranian nuclear deal. And sadly, Wendy Sherman negotiated basically the same deal,” Cruz said.
Responding to a question from a reporter asking how the Texas senator would respond to North Korea if he were commander in chief, Cruz said he would work to pressure China to cut off relations with North Korea, criticizing the Obama administration for failing to put diplomatic pressure on China to do so.
“For the remainder of President Obama’s term, we’re essentially in a Hobbesian state of nature like ‘Lord of the Flies,’” he said.
Cruz discounted U.S. attempts to unite its allies against North Korea, emphasizing that it “ought to be working with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan with China to continue to isolate North Korea, to continue to raise the costs of their belligerence.” U.S. policy toward North Korea already includes such measures.
The Texas senator, who is currently leading the GOP field in the early caucus state of Iowa, said that while he’s concerned about North Korea, one other country poses a more significant threat.
“Iran is qualitatively more dangerous,” he said to a room of over 100 Iowans.
“If Iran acquires a nuclear weapon, the test may not be underground measured by an earthquake, the test may be in the skies of Tel Aviv or New York or Los Angeles. We need a president who with unmistakable clarity stands up and says under no circumstances will the nation of Iran ever be allowed to acquire a nuclear weapon.”
Cruz is on a six-day barnstorming tour across Iowa that includes stops in 28 of the state’s 99 counties.
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