Ted Cruz Pushes Joe Lieberman For Secretary Of Defense

Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., points into the crowd before speaking at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has an outside-the-box idea for President Barack Obama: tap Joe Lieberman to replace Chuck Hagel, who announced on Monday he will step down as secretary of defense.

Cruz called the Democrat-turned-independent former senator a “strong option.”

“We need a Secretary of Defense who is squarely focused on defending the national security interests of the United States, first and foremost, and especially preventing a bad deal over Iran’s nuclear weapons program that could do irreparable harm to us and our allies. One strong option would be former Sen. Joe Lieberman, a member of the President’s own party with deep experience and unshakable commitment to the security of the United States. I urge the President to give him full and fair consideration for this critical position,” Cruz said Monday in a prepared statement.

Lieberman, the Democrats’ vice presidential candidate in 2000, became an independent in 2006 after his alienation from the party amid his steadfast support of the Iraq war. He retired in 2013 from the Senate, where he chaired the Homeland Security Committee.

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