Cruz, Trump rip Iran deal
GOP candidates join tea party fans outside Capitol, but nuclear accord likely to pass
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s nuclear agreement with Iran appears to be a done deal in Congress, but for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and rival presidential candidate Donald Trump, the vocal outrage is not.
Trump and Cruz, in an unusual pairing of competitors, headlined a rally on Capitol Hill on Wednesday to protest the deal, which they say will make it easier for Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.
Their appearance on the same public stage underscored the Cruz campaign’s strategy of courting voters in the Republican base who for now appear to be captivated by Trump’s blunt conservative pronouncements.
But in a tea party rally that Cruz might otherwise have dominated, the Texas Republican had to cede top billing to the billionaire celebrity who has proved to be a much stronger magnet for the national press and television cameras.
Cruz called the proposed nuclear deal “catastrophic” and one that a new president should “rip to shreds.” But he steered clear of any direct campaign pitches.
Trump was not as restrained. He called the deal “incompetently negotiated” and vowed that if he is
elected the U.S. would gain a negotiating advantage in diplomatic and military affairs.
“We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with winning,” he said to wild cheers and applause from a crowd of several thousand. “Believe me.”
The rally on the West Lawn of the Capitol occurred as the U.S. Senate began debate on the Iran nuclear accord. The White House has threatened to veto a Republican measure of disapproval, but on Tuesday Democrats appeared to have sewn up enough votes to block it from even going to Obama’s desk.
Despite the political arithmetic, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and other Republican leaders called for a robust debate on a GOP resolution of disapproval. “The American people deserve that kind of debate, not a partisan filibuster,” Cornyn said in a speech Tuesday.
In the House, conservative resistance was enough to force the GOP leaders to cancel the start of debate on a disapproval resolution and call an emergency meeting on how to proceed.
Candidates’ supporters
Outside at the tea party rally, both Cruz and Trump spoke before a giant banner in the center of the crowd that said simply: “Trump.” It was held up by Ed Hunter, a contractor from the Eastern Shore of Maryland.
“He’s a pit bull who will go after people and not apologize,” Hunter said. “Ted Cruz is a nice guy. But we need a pit bull.”
But Cruz had his adherents too. One of them was Candace Cassim, a retired administrator from North Carolina. She wore a Cruz T-shirt emblazoned with his campaign slogan, “courageous conservative.”
“He’s such a decent person,” she said. But like Cruz, she sees a role for Trump in the build-up to the 2016 election: “I’d like to see him do what he’s doing, speaking up, saying what needs to be said, and then step down when the time is right and give it to Ted. It’s no skin off his nose.”
According to Cruz, who has been one of the most vocal congressional critics of the Iran deal, Trump served as something of a force multiplier for his ardent opposition to the nuclear agreement.
“I also reached out individually to Donald Trump to invite him,” Cruz told reporters last Thursday before a tea party rally in Kingwood.
“And the reason is not complicated. Number one I like Donald, he’s a friend of mine. But when Donald arrives an event, he brings an army of TV reporters. He brings an army of cameras that show up. And Donald’s being there — he very graciously accepted — means the mainstream media will cover the event, will cover the catastrophic national security consequences that are coming from this terrible deal.”
Cruz’s invitation forced the Tea Party Patriots, the rally’s nonprofit sponsor, to open the stage to all presidential contenders so as to avoid any appearance of favoritism in the presidential race.
In the end the rally was joined by one other lowprofile GOP contender: former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore.
Among some of the stars of the conservative constellation who attended were former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and national radio hosts Glenn Beck and Mark Levin.
Also joining in was Texas U.S. Rep. Louis Gohmert of Tyler. Tea Party Patriots CEO and co-founder Jenny Beth Martin called it a “broad spectrum of national leaders.”
Bush, Clinton weigh in
But it was Cruz who got the most attention for sharing the spotlight with Trump, who leads the entire 2016 GOP field in the polls.
Unlike Jeb Bush, Rand Paul and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who have all jousted publicly with Trump, Cruz has declined to criticize the New York real estate mogul or question his conservative credentials.
Ahead of Wednesday’s rally, a Bush spokeswoman reminded reporters that Trump had once said that he “believes Hillary Clinton would be best to represent the United States in negotiations with Iran.”
The tea party rally came hours after Clinton made her case for the Iran deal in a speech at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
The former first lady and secretary of state said the U.S. faces a choice to either “move forward on a path to diplomacy or turn down a more dangerous path leading to a far less certain and riskier future.”
She also said the deal “blocks every pathway” for Iran to get a bomb and that it is “unrealistic” to go back and get a better deal now, as Cruz and other Republicans contend.
Others back the deal
Meanwhile, while Trump, Cruz and Palin rallied outside the Capitol, more than two dozen veterans, top retired military brass, and Gold Star Mothers organized by VoteVets.org worked the halls inside the building to press lawmakers to support the Iran nuclear deal. Counterprotesters also gathered on the fringes of the rally.
Many of those who turned out for the rally faulted GOP leaders in Congress for not pushing back harder against the administration. Bob Dunn, a retired military officer from Lancaster, Pa., said Republicans should insist on calling the deal a treaty and refuse to ratify it.
“A treaty is a treaty,” Dunn said. “For whatever reason, Republican leaders have set up an alternative process. It’s unconstitutional and it’s outrageous.”
Even if the 41 or 42 senators who have announced their support for the deal don’t hold together to block a vote, their numbers would be more than sufficient to uphold a presidential veto.
But that did not seem to discourage the Cruz and Trump enthusiasts braving the sunny 91 degree humidity outside.
“To say a protest is futile because they don’t have the votes misses the point,” said Jamie Hartt, a protester who drove 13 hours from Rochester, N.Y. “This is our way of constitutionally expressing our opposition to an insane and suicidal deal.”
There was also presidential politics in the air. Phill Cady, an airline mechanic from Conroe, waved a Lone Star banner in front of the stage and said he was “pretty much a Cruz guy.”
Lori Goldsmith, a grandmother from Waldorf, Md., said “Trump is making a lot of sense” to her, but that she would be open to backing Cruz.
Lillian Read, a tea party activist from Warrenton, Va., wore an American flag cowboy hat and said she’d be happy with either of the two rivals. “They’d make a good ticket,” she said.