Sen. Cruz: I Applaud the President’s Leadership This Week for Supporting Thousands of Blue-Collar and Farming Jobs, and for Withdrawing From the Iran Deal

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) today appeared on Fox News’ ‘Fox and Friends,’ to discuss the ‘win-win’ solution he reached with President Trump regarding the skyrocketing price of RINs which will save thousands of blue-collar refinery jobs. He also applauded President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Iran Deal, the release of the three American detainees in North Korea, and the rescissions package President Trump sent to Congress.

Watch the interview here, excerpts below.  

Sen. Cruz discussed the win-win solution on skyrocketing RIN prices the President reached this week to save thousands of refinery jobs in Texas and Pennsylvania that are being threatened by a broken regulatory system.

“I’ll tell you what people are excited about for example. Yesterday at the White House--I was there--the President made a decision that saved thousands of jobs. He stepped in and solved the broken RIN system. A RIN is something the EPA invented to enforce the ethanol mandate. But what happened was RINs skyrocketed and they were threatening the jobs of thousands upon thousands of blue-collar union members at refineries. Refineries in Texas, refineries in Pennsylvania. I’ve been for six months working with the President, working with other senators, and yesterday, the President made a terrific decision. He stepped in and said that we’re going to allow RINs to be created when ethanol is exported. What that means is, we’re going to export a lot more ethanol, that’s going to help corn farmers. We’re going to sell more ethanol, and he also is going to allow E-15 to be sold year-round. It’s a big win for corn farmers, but critically, the President, because of his bold leadership, is saving the jobs of thousands--even tens of thousands--of blue-collar union members, refinery workers. Exactly the people who elected Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton. It was exactly the right decision.” 

Sen. Cruz also discussed President Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Iran Deal.

“Once again I think the President did exactly the right thing to pull out of the Iran Deal. For the last year and a half, I’ve been talking with the President, urging him to take this course. I think the President has steadily been on this path. The Iran Deal that President Obama negotiated was catastrophic. It did enormous damage to America because it allowed billions of dollars to go to directly to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. And even worse than that, it did so in a way that insured Iran would get nuclear weapons. When the Ayatollah Khamenei pledges ‘death to America’ and ‘death to Israel,’ I believe him. He is a religious radical zealot and canceling the deal is exactly the right thing. What we need to do and what we’re going forward doing is re-imposing crushing sanctions, urging our allies to do the same and making sure that Iran never, never, never gets a nuclear weapon.”

Sen. Cruz applauded the release of the three Americans detained in North Korea, praising it is as “the result of American strength.”

“The President is to be commended for bringing these three Americans home. That is a major victory. And it’s really the result of American strength. You know, we saw for eight years under Barack Obama a foreign policy that was really a policy of weakness and appeasement. Remember how Obama put it, ‘leading from behind.’ And the problem is weakness and appeasement doesn’t work. Especially with dictators like Kim Jong-un, President Trump has come in with a strong American foreign policy, getting back to peace through strength, and I think we’re seeing the results of it with three Americans coming home.”

Sen. Cruz further commented on President Trump’s rescission package to start reining in wasteful spending. 

“I think the President is right to send a rescissions package. The biggest advantage of rescission is the Democrats can’t filibuster it. It’s a procedural vehicle that only takes 50 votes. So, if Republicans just stand together we can claw back some of that spending. One of the things I’ve been urging Republicans in the Senate--we’ve got a narrow 51 vote majority--the Democrats are filibustering everything. We need to be using all the procedural tools we have to pass things with 51 votes to get victory after victory after victory for the American people and reining in wasteful spending is certainly something we ought to be doing. So, I applaud the White House for doing that.”

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