FOX "Hannity"- Transcript: Cruz Interview

Interview

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

HANNITY: Senator, great to see you today. Big crowd, all these people. I ask you this one question. They get $150 billion. They're the number one state sponsor of terror. They get to build their intercontinental ballistic missiles. They get to spin their centrifuges. They get conventional arms. They get missile defense with Russia.

What did we get? Did we get anything that you can mention?

CRUZ: The only thing that we got out of this deal was President Obama got what he considers to be a domestic political victory. You know, his deputy national security adviser at the beginning of his second term described the Iranian nuclear deal as the "Obama care" of the second term. I think he meant that as a compliment.

This deal is catastrophic. As you rightly noted, if the deal goes through, it will make the Obama administration quite literally the world's leading financier of radical Islamic terrorism.

You know, I spoke on the Senate floor and at the rally outside the Capitol and I pointed out to every Democrat who's thinking of voting in favor of this deal, You need to be prepared to look in the eyes of the mothers and fathers of our soldiers who were murdered by Iranian IEDs in Iraq, hundreds of soldiers blown up by General Suleimani. This deal lifts the sanctions on General Suleimani.

But even more fundamentally, those Democratic senators need to be prepared to look in the eyes of mothers and fathers and sons and daughters of the hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans and Israelis that will be murdered by Hamas, by Hezbollah, by the Houthis, by radical Islamic terrorists who will receive billions from this deal.

You know, Osama bin Laden never had $100 billion. The Ayatollah Khamenei hates us every bit as much, has stated his intention to murder us just as viciously, and the difference is this deal will give him over $100 billion to carry that out. And if Iran acquires nuclear weapons, one EMP, one electromagnetic pulse over the Atlantic keyboard from one nuclear weapon could kill tens of millions of Americans! It's the biggest national security threat facing America!

HANNITY: What can you do? I mean, we went through this entire deal, where I thought it was a bad idea from the start, and that was Bob Corker's bill, where they basically took away -- you have a constitutional authority, two thirds majority for a treaty. Now, the president wasn't going to declare this a treaty.

What can you do in the Senate to stop this, if anything, at this point?

CRUZ: Well, really, there are two important things we can do. you're right, this should have been treated as a treaty. I fought hard against Corker-Cardin when it was coming up. I introduced an legislation, an amendment to have it require the affirmative approval of Congress, and it was Republican leadership who killed that and who pushed through this toothless deal.

But there are two things we can do, Sean. Number one, the most important right now is there are two people in Washington, D.C., who can stop this deal, and their names are Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker John Boehner. Under the terms of Corker-Cardin, it is very weak and toothless, the Iranian review legislation.

But the one tooth it has is it says it requires Obama to hand over the entire deal, and it defines that as including any side deals. Now, the Obama administration hasn't done that. They haven't handed over the side deals with the IAEA, the inspection deals that set up the farcically weak inspection regime where Iran essentially inspects itself.

Under the terms of that legislation, then, what McConnell and Boehner should do is say Obama has not followed federal law. He has not submitted the deal. Therefore, the clock has not run, which means it is against federal law for Obama to lift sanctions.

Obama -- McConnell and Boehner can do that together. All they have to do is enforce federal law and don't allow Obama to ignore the law. That's what I'm urging leadership to do. They don't want to do it, but that's what we should do.

I'll say, secondly, Sean, if they don't do it, if we go through with a show vote this week, if Republicans vote against it, Democrats vote for this deal, it will go into effect. That will make the single most important issue in 2016 stopping a nuclear Iran.

And I'll tell you this, Sean. I cannot wait to stand on that debate stage next to Hillary Clinton and to make abundantly clear if you vote for Hillary, you are voting for Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. And if you vote for me, under no circumstances will Iran, led by a theocratic ayatollah who chants "Death to America" -- under no circumstances will Iran be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons!

HANNITY: Well, "Death to America" was chanted immediately -- while the negotiations were going on. The Americans flag, the Israeli flag was burned. And they said the destruction of Israel is non-negotiable, Senator.

So you -- I want to go back because this is really important because the House and Senate still has not repealed and replaced "Obama care." You stood alone in a filibuster to fulfill that promise, and then you became a pariah.

They ran in 2014 on the idea that they would stop the illegal, unconstitutional executive amnesty. Is there any real hope? Do you really believe that McConnell and Boehner are going to take a stand once and for all on this?

CRUZ: Look, it is difficult to have a great deal of hope. As you know, a couple of months ago, I came out with a new book, "A Time for Truth." And it highlights what I call the Washington cartel, career politicians in both parties who get in bed with lobbyists and special interests and grow Washington.

And the problem is our leadership -- they want to engage in show votes but not actually win anything. So they want a show vote on "Obama care." They want a show vote on amnesty. They want a show vote on Iran.

They want a show vote on Planned Parenthood. We're going to have a big fight on Planned Parenthood. They want to show vote and then they want to acquiesce to Obama and send over $500 million in taxpayer funding to fund Planned Parenthood, an ongoing national criminal enterprise!

I think the American people are fed up with the games of Washington. No more show votes. Just stand up and lead!

HANNITY: I use that term, senator, all the time, especially the show votes on repealing and replacing ObamaCare.

Now, you have stated -- because it's likely that in the next three weeks, you have to pass a continuing resolution. The president, one, wants to increase spending, but more importantly, you have said you would not support any CR if it includes funding for Planned Parenthood. Do you have the support of other Republicans, considering the release of these videos in recent weeks?

CRUZ: Sadly, right now we don't. Republican leadership is standing with Barack Obama in supporting the funding of Planned Parenthood. Let me tell you how they're doing it. What Barack Obama has said is he will veto any funding for the federal government unless it includes $500 million of taxpayer money going to Planned Parenthood. So Obama is holding the entire federal government hostage, every agency in the federal government.

And what Republican leadership does is it unilaterally surrenders. It says, well, the major tool Congress has is the power of the purse under the constitution. And every time Congress threatens to use it, Obama says he'll veto it.

And so the position of McConnell and Boehner is they will not fight for anything unless Obama agrees to it and won't veto it. you know what, if that is the case, what the heck is the difference between them and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi if Obama sets all of the priorities.

And one of the illustrations, today there's a big "Wall Street Journal" editorial slamming me because I'm urging Republicans to actually follow through on our commitments and defund Planned Parenthood. And I talk about that a lot in the book "A Time for Truth," how the Wall Street Journal is the most powerful tool Republican leadership uses to hit conservatives.

HANNITY: But Senator, I don't understand how you become a pariah on following through on the very same promises your fellow senators have made.

I'm running out of time, and I want to make sure I ask you. Now, I applaud you. You went to see this county clerk in Kentucky, Kim Davis, yesterday. And there was a moment I guess you were supposed to go out on stage and Mike Huckabee's people said you can't go out on stage. We have the video. What happened here?

CRUZ: Look, I salute Mike Huckabee. I'm glad he has spoken out in defense of religious liberty. I was in Kentucky. I met with Kim Davis before she was released to support here. As you know, religious liberty has been a deep and personal fight of mine. For decades I've been leading the fight. And I am celebrating Kim Davis' release.

I'll tell you, when I met her, I had the opportunity to visit with her one-on-one, I told her I said, Kim, you are inspiring millions of believers across America and across the world. And, indeed, you have been lifted up in prayer. Heidi and I are praying for you, believers all over the world. I said you may have thought you were alone in that jail cell, but you didn't realize just how crowded it was because we're standing with you.

HANNITY: Senator, are we criminalizing Christianity? There had to be a better way to handle this than to put this woman in jail for six days because she was following her deeply held religious convictions and her job description had changed. There had to be a better way. Is this now the future? Are we getting a glimpse of the future in terms of the battle against religious liberty?

CRUZ: Yes, Sean. Kim Davis is you and men. It is threats coming after all of our liberty. Six months ago if I would have suggested that a Christian woman would have been thrown in jail for living according to her faith, that would have been ridiculed as totally impossible. Yet it happened in Kentucky. A couple weeks ago I hosted a religious liberty rally in Iowa with 2,500 people, had nine heroes from across the country tell their stories of standing for faith, being persecuted, facing death threats, being fired. If you want to watch those stories go to our website TedCruz.org. Watch that religious liberty rally. You'll be lifted up. But it makes clear that there has never been a greater threat to religious liberty than we're facing right now.

HANNITY: Last question, senator. I'm not trying to cut you short, last question. We had Rudy Giuliani on this program. We see the problem with Hillary Clinton, the secret server that was in the bathroom of a mom and pop shop. We now know that it has been confirmed she had top secret, the highest level of security clearance. She had those e-mails on her server in spite of her claims otherwise. She finally apologized yesterday. Rudy identified 13 separate criminal statutes that he would be looking at. This is your background, your experience. What are your thoughts? Does she have an issue legally, criminally?

CRUZ: Look, from all the public information it appears that Secretary Clinton has some very serious legal jeopardy, that she may well have violated multiple federal statutes, multiple criminal laws. And, you know, it is certainly our hope and prayer that the Department of Justice would investigate those fairly. Justice should be blind to party.

It's interesting comparing this to Planned Parenthood, those Planned Parenthood videos, which are horrific. On them senior Planned Parenthood officials essentially admit to multiple felonies. It is a federal crime to sell the body parts of unborn children for a profit. And yet nobody on earth thinks there's any chance the Obama Justice Department would even begin to investigate Planned Parenthood. They're too close a political ally of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. That's not how the Department of Justice should operate. I'm an alumnus of the Department of Justice. It should be blind to party and ideology. And one of the things that I have pledged, if I'm elected president we're going to restore integrity to the Department of Justice. On day one I will direct the Department of Justice to open an investigation into Planned Parenthood.

HANNITY: Good for you.

CRUZ: Prosecute any and all criminal violations. And the criminal prosecutions of Hillary or anyone else shouldn't be driven by whether the Valerie Jarrett in the White House likes Hillary or dislikes her on a given day. It should be driven by the law and by the constitution.

HANNITY: All right, senator, we're running out of time. It's really interesting to watch you and a competitor, Donald Trump today. I think it says a lot about the times we're living in and how significant the issues are that we're facing. We're going to watch. The next three weeks are going to be crucial for the leadership in Congress. Senator, good to see you. Thank you for being with us.

CRUZ: Thank you, Sean. God bless.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source