Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz stated of GOP leadership’s handling of the Iran deal, “it appears that they’re prepared to roll over, to have a show vote, to lose the show vote, and then move on to their real priorities, which is growing government, passing corporate welfare, and passing cronyist programs like the Export-Import Bank” on Friday’s “Mark Levin Show.”

Cruz, after denouncing the deal, said, “Sadly, Congress has given away its constitutional authority to ratify it as a treaty, or reject it as a treaty. And so it’s going to take 2/3ds of the Senate and 2/3ds of the House to defeat it. Which means Obama needs to hold on to 34 Democratic Senators to push through this terrible deal.”

Cruz later added that the deal should be treated as a treaty, and “Even at a bare minimum, leadership, [Sen.] Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and [Rep.] John Boehner (R-OH), could simply say, under the terms of the pathetically weak Corker/Cardin bill, ‘The sixty day clock doesn’t start ticking until the full agreement has been handed over.’ And there are side deals with the IAEA that haven’t been given yet to Congress. And so the sixty day clock hasn’t started ticking, and no sanctions can be lifted until the sixty day clock kicks. That’s what leadership should say. And yet, unfortunately, it appears that they’re prepared to roll over, to have a show vote, to lose the show vote, and then move on to their real priorities, which is growing government, passing corporate welfare, and passing cronyist programs like the Export-Import Bank.”

Cruz also pointed to amendments to treat the deal as a treaty and that sanctions couldn’t be lifted without affirmative approval from both houses of Congress that he supported, adding, “In both instances, Republican leadership was unwilling to stand up and fight for that. They were more interested in essentially having a show vote, than stopping it.” He also stated that in various lunches he was “shouted down by my colleagues” when he argued the Corker/Cardin bill was insufficient.

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