Cruz: The Answers Are Not ‘China Bad,’ ‘Muslims Bad’

Thursday at the CNN Republican presidential debate, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) took a shot at his rival Donald Trump by saying the answer to the problems the nation is facing is not simply to yell, “China bad,” “Muslim bad.”

Partial transcript as follows:

TAPPER: Senator Cruz, you talked about changing the rules of engagement of battle against ISIS. Would that include targeting the families of suspected terrorists?

CRUZ: No, of course not, we’ve never targeted innocent civilians and we’re not going to start now. I understand peoples are scared. President Obama lectures people on Islamophobia. That is maddening. The answer is not to yell ‘China bad, Muslim bad.’ You have to understand the nature of the threats we’re facing and how you deal with them. We need a president, commander in chief focused on fighting them. Frankly one concern I have with Donald is although his language is quite incendiary, when you look at his substantive policies on Iran, he has said he would not rip up this Iranian nuclear deal. The Ayatollah Khomeini wants nuclear weapons to murder us. Another example, dealing with Islamic radical terrorism, Donald said he wants to be neutral between Israel and the Palestinians. As president I will not be neutral. A Texan, Taylor Force, he was an Eagle Scout he was a West Point graduate. He was an Army veteran. He was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist this week in Israel, and I don’t think we need a commander in chief who is neutral between the Palestinian terrorists and one of our strongest allies in the world, the nation of Israel.

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