Cruz: Carpet bomb ISIS 'into oblivion'

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz said Saturday he would "utterly destroy" the Islamic State if elected president.

"We will carpet bomb them into oblivion. I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark, but we’re going to find out," Cruz said at the Rising Tide Summit in Cedar Rapids.

Speaking to reporters before his speech, Cruz said the U.S. "should do whatever is necessary to defeat and destroy" ISIS, including taking out the oil fields and processing facilities that support the terror group.

The Texas Republican also criticized the idea of political correctness during his speech.

“We’ve seen the neighbors of the San Bernardino terrorists who said I suspected something, I thought something was wrong, but I didn’t want to say it because it wasn’t politically correct," Cruz said. "We see on college campuses and universities the speech police telling people you can’t speak unless it is sanitized."

He also took shots at the government's collection of data and the records of U.S. citizens.

“How about the federal government, the Obama administration, spend less time trying to read your and mine emails and phone calls and more time stopping radical Islamic terrorism," Cruz said at the summit.

Rising Tide Summit speeches:

QUOTE: “Let me tell you right now, radical Islamic terrorism is evil. … Let me say, beyond that, in the United States, we will not enforce Sharia law. And Madam Attorney General, if you want to come prosecute me for executing my First Amendment rights, come and get me. I'm right here.”

BEST MOMENT: Cruz received some of the loudest applause during his speech for saying the U.S. would not enforce Sharia law. He also earned cheers from the audience for calling multiple times to abolish the Internal Revenue Service.

AUDIENCE REACTION: While only the second candidate to speak, Cruz received the first, second and third total standing ovations of the day.