Ted Cruz 2015 CPAC Full Speech: ‘Obamacare Is A Train Wreck,’ Hillary ‘Embodies The Corruption Of Washington’
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, aimed to differentiate himself from the crowded 2016 GOP presidential field during a fiery speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday in Maryland. While not mentioning other possible candidates by name, Cruz argued that he has fought for conservative principles while others have no record of action to back up their conservative credentials.
Cruz said it was “fantastic” and “terrific” for CPAC speakers to say they opposed Obamacare or want to rein in the national debt. But “if you’re really conservative, you will have been in the trenches, you will have bared the scars, you will have fought the fight,” he told a packed crowd at CPAC, the conservative movement’s largest annual event and a place where prospective candidates often go to test their message for the Republican base.
Cruz, who hasn’t officially started a campaign for the presidency, said the country “is in jeopardy” and that Republicans can win only if they reassemble the coalition of Republicans and Reagan Democrats. “We need to run a populist campaign standing for hard-working men and women,” he said. “We need to take the power out of Washington and bring it back to the American people.” Cruz said the biggest divide in the country isn’t between Republicans and Democrats, but “between career politicians in Washington and the American people.”
The Texas senator also ripped into President Barack Obama’s health care agenda and the president’s refusal to call the actions of the Islamic State group Islamic terrorism. “Obamacare is a train wreck, and that’s actually not fair to train wrecks,” he said.
Cruz also took a swipe at Hillary Clinton, the presumed Democratic frontrunner. “Hillary Clinton embodies the corruption of Washington,” he said. In a short question-and-answer session with Fox News host Sean Hannity in which Cruz was asked to describe Clinton in one word, he said, “Washington.” He also characterized Obama as a “lawless imperator.”
Conservatives troubled by Rubio’s immigration push
Say they are still willing to look at viable candidate
Activists at the Conservative Political Action Conference this week say they want to give Sen. Marco Rubio a look as a potential GOP presidential candidate, but say his efforts to push a “comprehensive” immigration bill through the Senate remain troubling.
Their wariness underscores a political reality: Two years after Republican and establishment conservative leaders insisted their party needs to do an about-face on immigration, the party’s right-wing base is still having none of it, insisting that any would-be 2016 GOP standard-bearer take a firm stand against any legal status for illegal immigrants.
“I have had my eye on Marco Rubio for a long time, and when he came out with the Gang of Eight I thought, ‘What are you doing? What is going on?’ It just kind of stopped me in my tracks, just because I did not understand that at all,” said Roz Bellis, an Air Force veteran. “So I will still be looking at him, but I still have that in the back of my mind.”
Ted Cruz Gets Fiery About Hillary, Takes Questions from Hannity at CPAC
God bless CPAC!” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said as he took the stage at the annual conservative convention Thursday afternoon. Noting that no Democrats were in attendance, he joked, “It’s almost like CPAC invited Benjamin Netanyahu to speak.” He then said CPAC could have had Hillary Clinton at the conference but “couldn’t find a foreign nation to foot the bill.”
Cruz urged fiscal and social conservatives to come together in order to “get to 51%” in the next presidential election. “Hillary Clinton embodies the corruption of Washington,” he said of his potential 2016 opponent, implying that he represents the opposite.
The senator framed himself as a man of “action,” not just words, telling those in attendance they should demand that leaders “stand up against” not only President Barack Obama‘s policies, but also against “career politician” Republicans who don’t meet his conservative ideals.
Following the speech, Fox News’ Sean Hannity came out and asked Cruz a series of questions. But rather than giving Cruz the grilling that Laura Ingraham delivered to Chris Christie earlier in the day, Hannity mostly just set him up to deliver applause-garnering lines. Case in point, his final question: “Why does Ted Cruz love America?”
Ted Cruz Calls Out Hillary, His Own Party During Fiery CPAC Speech: ‘Talk Is Cheap’ Ted Cruz, the junior Republican senator from Texas, received waves of standing ovations, cheers and whistles as he addressed the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference Thursday. (video)
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