In an interview with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday, Senator Ted Cruz discussed his take on the U.S.’s handling of Syria and Benghazi.
The Republican Texas senator said that President Obama doesn’t have the “authority” to issue an attack on Syria and says such an attack would be a “mistake.” Cruz also said that an attack “would be contrary to the Constitution,” something he thinks could get Obama impeached. While Cruz is concerned with Syria, he believes that all of the talk about an attack on Syria is making Americans forget about another issue–Benghazi.
“This is the one-year anniversary of the attack on Benghazi” Cruz said. “In Benghazi, four Americans were killed, including the first ambassador since 1979. When it happened, the president promised to hunt the wrongdoers down, and yet a few months later, the issue has disappeared. You don’t hear the president mention Benghazi. Now it’s a phony scandal.”
The president has been criticized by many for how the Benghazi situation was handled, and CNN released a report in early August alleging that the CIA was taking extreme measures to cover up Benghazi secrets. “One of the problems with all of this focus on Syria, is it’s missing the ball from what we should be focused on,” Cruz said during the interview. “We ought to be defending U.S. national security, and going after radical Islamic terrorists.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JAcS74yzII
Even though Cruz doesn’t think Obama is giving Benghazi the proper attention, he is making sure that everyone knows he thinks intervening in Syria is the wrong path to take. “It is not the responsibility of the United States military to serve as the policeman of the world,” Cruz said during a briefing last week. The senator posted a Tweet a few days ago criticizing how the Syrian conflict has been handled:
Unacceptable: pic.twitter.com/woN4vSjEpE
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) August 29, 2013
What do you think–is Cruz right about Benghazi being an afterthought now? Respond below.