Newsmax - Cruz, Trump Blast Iran Deal at DC Rally
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By Greg Richter
Conservative leaders, including two GOP presidential candidates, spoke at a Washington, D.C., rally on Wednesday urging Congress to reject the Iranian nuclear deal negotiated by the White House this summer.
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who played a role in organizing the event put on by Tea Party Patriots, said he would rip up the deal the day he enters the Oval Office. Businessman Donald Trump, the current front-runner, said he'd renegotiate it.
But both agreed it was a bad deal that allows Iran to eventually get a nuclear weapon and frees up previously frozen assets to aid terrorists and fight proxy wars in the Middle East.
Trump told the crowd that the four Americans currently being jailed or held captive in Iran should have been freed before anything was signed and that if he is elected they will be before he ever takes the oath of office.
"I've been making a lot of wonderful deals, great deals. That's what I do," Trump said. "Never, ever, ever, in my life have I seen any transaction so incompetently negotiated as our deal with Iran, and I mean never, ever."
Cruz warned "people will die," if Iran passes the deal. "There is no greater threat to the safety and security of America. There is no greater threat to the safety and security of Israel."
Cruz said he hopes the 42 Senate Democrats support the deal will go home, pray, and reconsider their votes.
"I agree with former Democratic Sen. Joe Lieberman, that this vote is quite likely the most important vote that any member of Congress, any member of the Senate will cast in their entire career," Cruz said.
"Americans will die, Israelis will die, Europeans will die," Cruz said. "Osama bin Laden never had $100 billion. He was filled with bilious hatred, and using rudimentary tools, murdered nearly 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001. We're now talking about giving the Ayatollah Khamenei, a theocratic homicidal maniac, who hates America every bit as much as bin Laden did, giving him $100 billion to carry out his murderous plan."
Other speakers included "Duck Dynasty" star Phil Robertson and radio talk show hosts Glenn Beck and Mark Levin.
House GOP leaders were forced to delay plans to open debate on a resolution of disapproval as some Republicans threatened to withhold their support. Frustrated that the disapproval resolution looked short of support in the Senate, these Republicans were demanding an alternate approach.
"We need to pull every tool out of the toolbox to stop this bad deal," said Rep. Bill Flores, R-Texas, leader of a large group of conservatives in the House.
The outcome was uncertain as the surprise disagreement spilled into the open just moments before the House was to come into session to begin debating a procedural measure on the resolution. House GOP leaders hastily developed a Plan B involving votes on several related measures, according to Rep. Pete Roskam, R-Ill: one to specify that the Obama administration had not properly submitted the Iran deal to Congress; a second, bound-to-fail vote to approve the deal, and a third to prevent Obama from lifting congressionally mandated sanctions on Iran.
"There seems to be some divisions inside the conference," said Rep. Steve Stivers, R-Ohio.
As the day began, former Secretary of State Clinton praised the accord. "Diplomacy is not the pursuit of perfection. It is the balancing of risk," she said in a speech at the Brookings Institution. Either the deal moves forward, or "we turn down a more dangerous path leading to a far less certain and riskier future."
At the Capitol, Republican presidential candidates Trump and Cruz and other conservatives, including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, headlined an anti-deal rally on the lawn.
Inside, debate was beginning in both the House and the Senate, where supporters and the White House were pushing to block passage of a disapproval resolution.
"The other side can roll out their big guns on this if they wish, but frankly I think most members of the Senate Democratic Caucus are not going to be swayed by Mr. Trump, our colleague, Senator Cruz, or even a former vice president," said the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin of Illinois. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has dubbed the deal "madness."
But Cruz, speaking on the Senate floor, assailed the accord, arguing that "this terrible deal will not stop a virulently anti-American and anti-Israeli regime from getting a nuclear bomb."
The House, returning from summer recess, was expected to approve the disapproval resolution this week. But in the hours before debate was to begin on a procedural measure setting the terms for discussion and votes, Republicans began objecting. They called for a vote instead on a measure Roskam to delay the proceedings, arguing that the 60-day clock on the congressional review period hasn't started because lawmakers did not get more information on separate agreements negotiated with Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The effort was backed by Cruz, who has repeatedly allied himself with House conservatives to thwart the plans of GOP leaders.
"Because the administration has not submitted the full agreement, the 60-day clock has not started, and if the 60-day clock has not started it is contrary to federal law for President Obama to lift the sanctions," Cruz said. "Republican leaders can simply follow the law and not facilitate President Obama's yet again ignoring federal law."
Congress has until Sept. 17 -- a week from Thursday -- to pass a disapproval resolution of the Iran deal, under legislation passed earlier this year giving Congress the right to review the deal. Democrats dismissed the GOP attempts to change the terms of the review period.
"It's cute, but this thing has a deadline," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters.
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