(JNi.media) Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz appeared together Wednesday on the Capitol steps in Washington, D.C., to attack the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran, at a rally sponsored by The Endowment for Middle East Truth.
Trump, who commanded 37 points in the latest PPP poll in South Carolina, and Cruz, who had to settle for 6, called the nuclear agreement naïve, suggesting it would only encourage Iran to increase its activities against the West. Trump told reporters he admires Cruz, and that the two of them share a genuine respect for one another. “I like him. He likes me. He’s backed me 100 percent,” Trump said. “Ted Cruz was out there and he really backed me very strongly and I always respected that. He asked me to come along and I guess he figured we’d get a big crowd and we certainly have.”
“If Senate Democrats decide that party loyalty matters more than national security and if Republican leadership decides that showboating is more important than stopping this deal, then the single most important issue in 2016 will be stopping Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” Cruz, speaking first, told the crowd of several thousand, who were waving American and Israeli flags, as well as signs that read: “Jewish lives matter” and “POTUS in bed with those who behead.”
When his turn came to speak, Trump said that if he is elected, the four American hostages being held in Iran, including Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian, former US Marine Amir Hekmati, and pastor Saeed Abedini, would be returned before he set foot in the Oval Office. “I’ve never seen something so incompetently negotiated — and I mean never,” Trump said. “We are led by very, very stupid people,” he added, and as a result we “lose to everybody,” most notably Iran.
But after he is elected, Trump promised, “We will have so much winning, that you may get bored with winning, believe me.”
Former vice presidential candidate and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was also on hand at the rally, telling the crowd that “you don’t reward terrorism. You kill it.”