Cruz ’92, Christie face off in CNN Republican debate

The Iran nuclear deal is the biggest issue of 2016, Republican presidential candidate and U.S. Senator for Texas Ted Cruz ’92 argued at the Republican debate hosted by CNN on Wednesday.

In the deal, the United Nations, the United States and the European Union agreed to lift financial sanctions on Iran in return for the country reducing its nuclear activity, such as by decreasing the store of enriched uranium over the next several months and capping it for 15 years.

“The single biggest national security threat facing America right now is the threat of a nuclear Iran,” Cruz said. “If I am elected President, I promise on my very first day in office, I will rip to shreds this catastrophic Iranian nuclear deal.”

According to Cruz, President Barack Obama has shown weakness with regard to Iran in the past six and a half years. Cruz said that the deal would make the Obama administration “the world’s leading financier of radical Islamic terrorism” in sending over $100 billion to the AyatollahKhamenei, and that the agreement would also abandon four American hostages in Iran as well as accelerate Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons.

“Most astonishingly, this agreement trusts the Iranians to inspect themselves. That makes no sense whatsoever," Cruz said."And I’ll have you know … Obama is violating federal law by not handing over the side deals, and we ought to see the United States Congress stand up together and say, ‘Hand over those treaties and protect this country.’ ”

Entrepreneur Donald Trump, who expressed support for deporting all undocumented immigrants, claimed that without his presence, the topic of illegal immigration would be far less prominent at the debate. Though former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina pointed out that national discourse has focused on the topic for the past 25 years, Cruz said he was very glad Trump’s candidacy has forced the mainstream media to examine the issue.

Cruz added that voting records indicate a majority of the candidates onstage have embraced amnesty, while he remains the only one to have never done so. He noted that he headed the battle to stop a massive amnesty plan presented in 2013 by Obama, certain Republicans and Democratic U.S. Senator for Nevada Harry Reid.

“I’ve been leading the fight in the Senate to triple the border patrol, to put in place fencing and walls, to put in place a strong biometric exit-entry system,” Cruz said.

In response to a charge that his campaigns to defund Planned Parenthood will ruin the Republicans’ chance of securing the 2016 presidency, Cruz said he is proud to stand for life.

He encouraged every American to view the Planned Parenthood videos, which he called horrifying.

“It is a felony, with 10 years’ jail time, to sell the body parts of unborn children for profit,” he said. “Absolutely, we shouldn’t be sending $500 million of taxpayer money to funding an ongoing criminal enterprise.”

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University trustee Gov. Chris Christie echoed Cruz’s views.

“Six years ago, as the brand new first ever pro-life governor of New Jersey since Roe v. Wade, I defunded Planned Parenthood, and I’ve vetoed Planned Parenthood funding eight times,” Christie said. He called for the Republican candidates to stop fighting among one another and to instead confront Democratic abortion supporters like Hillary Clinton.

In addition, Christie approved of previous governmental actions in the Middle East, saying that those decisions secured America until Obama took that safety away.

“I support what President Bush did at that time: going into Afghanistan, hunting Al Qaeda and its leaders, getting its sanctuary out of place and making it as difficult around the world for them to move people and money," Christie said. "And then they went to prosecutors like us, and he said, ‘Never again … intervene before the crime happens.’ ”

CNN invited the top 11 candidates leading in national polls to the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif. for the second of 12 scheduled Republican presidential debates.

Aside from Cruz, Christie, Trump and Fiorina, the participants were U.S. Senator for Kentucky Rand Paul, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, U.S. Senator for Florida Marco Rubio, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

The program began at 8 p.m. and ended at approximately 11:15 p.m.

Two hours prior, the CNN debate for less popular candidates featured Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, U.S. Senator for South Carolina Lindsey Graham, former U.S. Senator for Pennsylvania Rick Santorum and former New York Gov. George Pataki, each of whom is receiving about one percent of support in the polls.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper moderated the debate, which included additional questions from Republican radio host Hugh Hewitt and CNN political correspondent Dana Bush.

Correction: Due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article misidentifiedAyatollah Khamenei. Additionally, due to a reporting error, an earlier version of this article misstated the timeline of the Iran nuclear deal.The United Nations, the United States and the European Union have agreed to lift financial sanctions on Iranand, in return, Iran will reduce its nuclear activity bydecreasing the store of enriched uranium over the next several months and capping it for 15 years. The 'Prince' regrets the errors.