In the latest front in Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) battle with 2016 rival Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Cruz blamed the Florida senator for supporting Hillary Clinton’s Libya policy that, in Cruz’s words, led to the Benghazi attacks.
“Senator Rubio emphatically supported Hillary Clinton in toppling [Muammar] Qaddafi in Libya. I think that made no sense,” Cruz told Bloomberg Politics Monday, connecting the U.S. military intervention to the Benghazi attack that killed four Americans.
“The terrorist attack that occurred in Benghazi was a direct result of that massive foreign policy blunder,” Cruz claimed.
“If you look at President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and for that matter some of the more aggressive Washington neo-cons, they have consistently mis-perceived the threat of radical Islamic terrorism and have advocated military adventurism that has had the effect of benefiting radical Islamic terrorists,” Cruz said.
The 2016 rivalry between Cruz and Rubio — both freshman senators — has escalated since the Texas senator described himself as the conservative alternative to the “moderate” Rubio. The two have since duked it out over immigration and national security.
Monday, Cruz accused Rubio of repeating Clinton’s mistakes in Libya by supporting a no-fly zone in Syria: “They’ve demonstrated they’ve learned nothing,” he said.
In a response to Cruz’s comments, the Rubio campaign hit Cruz for his support of a measure to scale back government surveillance which Rubio has said made America less safe.
It’s probably telling my age but this sure sounds familiar. Oh I KNOW!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cl5BkumgZYIWhat “US Military intervention” ? Most of the bombing was done by NATO forces if I recall correctly…
Tierney,you disappoint me: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_military_intervention_in_Libya
Why don’t the ‘real’ republicans go after cruz and the tea baggers for being pro Qaddaffi, pro Assad, and pro Hamas?
So deposing Qaddafi led to Benghazi but getting rid of Saddam Hussein did not lead to the creation of ISIS. I can never understand Republican logic.
I’m confused. One day, we’re not interventionist enough. The next day, were too interventionisty. I guess the Ted Cruz Doctrine is “wait 6 months and then we’ll decide what we should have done.”