Sen. Ted Cruz is accusing President Obama of being an “apologist for radical Islamic terrorists.”
The Texas Republican, appearing on “The Kelly File” Wednesday, accused Obama and his administration of turning a “hard heart to the persecution of Christians abroad … to the persecution of Jews abroad.”
In the wake of a video released by the Islamic State depicting the beheading in Libya of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians, the administration released a statement that omitted the religion of the victims. The president and his administration have taken pains to emphasize that the United States and its western allies are not “at war with Islam.”
Cruz expressed his displeasure with the administration’s response.
“Unfortunately, this president and his administration dogmatically refuses to utter the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism.’ You cannot defeat an enemy if you refuse to acknowledge what it is.”
“ISIS is the face of evil, and these latest atrocities … our heart breaks,” Cruz said. “And to see 21 Coptic Christians murdered, beheaded by radical Islamic terrorists, to see 45 people lit on fire, this is horrific and it is deliberate and it is targeted at Christians. It is targeted at Jews. It’s targeted at Muslims in the region who do not accede to the radical Islamist view.”
Cruz also blasted the State Department’s statements on the Islamic State.
“The solution is not expanded Medicaid in Iraq,” Cruz said. “The solution is the full force of U.S. military power to destroy the leaders of ISIS. They have declared war, jihad, on the United States. Jihad is another word the president doesn’t say.”
