Ted Cruz criticized various news organizations for their coverage of the San Bernardino attacks. | AP Photo Cruz pledges relentless bombing to destroy ISIL 'I don’t know if sand can glow in the dark, but we’re going to find out!'

Ted Cruz on Saturday promised a ruthless campaign against terrorists in the Middle East, promising to find out “if sand can glow in the dark.”

“We will utterly destroy ISIS,” he said of the terrorist group also called ISIL. “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!”


The 2016 contender tore into the Obama administration, The New York Times editorial board, and Democrats for talking about increased gun controls rather than terrorism after last week’s mass shooting in California.

“The left’s immediate reaction to radical Islamic terrorists, like kittens with their eyes closed, is not to go after the bad guys, but to immediately try to seize the guns of law-abiding citizens,” Cruz told at least 1,500 people gathered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for an event hosted by the conservative group FreedomWorks.

The gathering, likely the largest Republican cattle call before the Iowa caucuses, was meant to center on economic issues but Cruz zeroed in on national security and Second Amendment rights, and won huge applause for it. His appearance came hours after The New York Times ran a front-page editorial calling for stricter gun control following the San Bernardino massacre, which is now being linked to terrorism.

“Let me tell the editors of the Times something: you don’t stop the bad guys by taking away our guns. You stop the bad guys by using our guns,” Cruz said to applause.

He also criticized the New York Daily News for its front-page image following the shooting that proclaimed, “God isn’t fixing this,” along with mocking pictures of tweets from Republicans offering their thoughts and prayers.

“Let me tell the Democrats, let me tell the mainstream media—although I repeat myself—there has never been a time in the history of this country when we needed prayer more,” Cruz said.

He reminded the audience of an awkward moment for President Barack Obama, when he said in 2008 that people in small towns “get bitter, they cling to guns or religion.” Cruz said: “We’re not bitter, but we’re getting pretty angry. And President Obama can’t have our God or our guns.”

That message comes as Cruz increasingly talks up his security and foreign policy positions following last month’s terrorist attacks in Paris, delivering a tough, hawkish message that has helped him cut into the base of former Iowa poll leader Ben Carson. Cruz’s campaign announced Saturday that he is going up with two new advertisements in Iowa, one on national security and the other featuring Iowa Rep. Steve King, who recently endorsed the Texas senator. And on Friday, at an Iowa shooting range, Cruz unveiled his Second Amendment coalition, which boasts more than 24,000 members.

“The media immediately sniffed that it was insensitive to talk about the Second Amendment after the San Bernardino terrorist attack,” he said. “I don’t view it as my job to be sensitive to Islamic terrorists.”

Even as Cruz’s tough rhetoric was received with applause, the FreedomWorks crowd has libertarian leanings. So the 2016 contender—who has been feuding with GOP rival Marco Rubio over Cruz’s opposition to bulk telephone metadata collection by the National Security Agency—dished out some tailor-made privacy talking points too.

“How about the federal government, the Obama administration, spend less time trying to read your and my emails and phone calls,” he said, “and more time stopping radical Islamic terrorists?”