If elected president, Ted Cruz would cross five tasks off his list during his first 24 hours in the White House — or so the Texas senator says.
The Republican presidential hopeful told voters at the Iowa State Fair Friday to “look forward to January 2017” as he outlined what his agenda would look like during his first day in office.
“First thing I intend to do in office [is] end every single illegal and unconstitutional executive action taken by this president,” Cruz told fair-goers. “The president says he has a phone and a pen, but when you live by the pen you die by the pen.
“And my pen has got an eraser,” he added.
The pro-life senator then said he would instruct the Justice Department to initiate an investigation into Planned Parenthood and the “horrible” undercover videos that have emerged from the Center for Medical Progress. Cruz added that he would encourage the DOJ to “prosecute any and all criminal violations by [Planned Parenthood].”
According to Cruz, his third item of business would be to alert the DOJ, Internal Revenue Service and other federal agencies “that the persecution of religious liberty ends today.”
“That means for our service men and women, that every one of them can pray and worship God almighty with all of their hearts, minds and souls,” Cruz said. “That means that in January 2017, the federal government stops litigating against and persecuting the little sisters of the poor for standing for their faith.”
The junior senator then reaffirmed a promise he’s previously made to undo the Obama Administration’s nuclear agreement with Iran on his first day in the Oval Office.
“The fourth thing I intend to do is rip to shreds this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal,” he said, adding that “the single greatest national security threat facing America today is a threat of nuclear Iran.”
Finally, Cruz would embark on an effort relocate the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, the “once and eternal capital of Israel,” according to Cruz.
“A lot of presidential candidates, both Democrat and Republican have made that promise and yet inevitably, when they get to the White House, their team comes to them and says ‘Well gosh, if you do that other folks in the Middle East are going to be really unhappy with you,'” he said, adding that “if you haven’t noticed, they’re already pretty unhappy with us.”
“That’s day one,” Cruz asserted.
The Texas senator later told voters that his dependability is what distinguishes him from the rest of the GOP field and that his plans as president would also include a full repeal of Obamacare, the elimination of Common Core and the renewal of America’s military strength.
“By the end of eight years, newspaper editors and journalists will have checked themselves into therapy,” Cruz quipped, before taking questions from the audience.
