Shortly after President Barack Obama dismissed Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) call to “carpet bomb” the Islamic State during Tuesday’s State of the Union address, Cruz doubled down on that proposal during an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly.
“I will apologize to no one for my willingness and commitment to killing terrorists,” the Republican presidential candidate told Kelly.
Cruz criticized the President for neglecting to mention recent terror attacks that struck Paris and San Bernardino, California, in addition to a recent attack on a Philadelphia police officer carried out by a suspect who pledged loyalty to ISIL, in his speech.
“We need a commander-in-chief that will speak the name of our enemy,” Cruz said. “Neither Barack Obama nor Hillary Clinton has what it takes to do so. If I am president, we’ll utterly destroy ISIS. It means carpet bombing them out of oblivion so that any jihadist that declares war and tries to murder Americans will be defeated.”
In his State of the Union address, Obama urged taking a diplomatic, coalition-based approach to fighting terrorism rather than unilateral use of force.
“Our answer needs to be more than tough talk or calls to carpet bomb civilians. That may work as a TV sound bite, but it doesn’t pass muster on the world stage,” the president said.