In an interview Thursday (July 30) with KFYO's Chad Hasty, Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz slammed Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush for being afraid to speak the truth about the Iran deal.

During a segment where Hasty asked about the Iran nuclear deal, Sen. Cruz singled out Mitt Romney and fellow presidential candidate Jeb Bush as part of the problem in the Republican Party.

Cruz alleged that neither Romney nor Bush was willing to speak the truth regarding the Iran deal.

"Iran is today the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. That's fact number one. Fact number two, if this deal goes through over $100 billion in American control will flow to Iran. Fact number three, we know to an absolute certainty a substantial portion of that over $100 billion will be given to Hamas, to Hezbollah, to the Houthis, to radical Islamist terrorists," said Cruz. "And as a result, those billions of dollars in American control with be used by Jihadists to murder Americans, to murder Israelis, to murder Europeans."

Cruz concluded: "The unavoidable consequence of those facts is that if this deal goes through, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and John Kerry will be the leading global financiers of radical Islamist terrorism on the face of the earth."

Cruz then turned his criticism toward Republican leadership -- specifically, Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush.

"One of the reasons Republicans keep getting clobbered is we have leaders like Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush who are afraid to say that," said Cruz.

Romney's claim via Twitter that Cruz's remarks are harmful rhetoric are off the mark, the senator said.

"It's not a question of rhetoric...describing the actual facts is not using rhetoric, it's called speaking the truth," Cruz told Hasty.

But Cruz didn't stop there, recalling Mitt Romney getting "clobbered" by Barack Obama in a presidential debate due to confusing rhetoric with telling the truth.

"We all remember that third debate where Barack Obama turned to Mitt and said, 'I said that Benghazi attack was terrorism and no one is more upset by Benghazi than I am,'" Cruz said. "And Mitt, I guess listening to his own advice, said, 'well, gosh I don't want to use any rhetoric, so OK, nevermind, I'll just kinda rearrange the pencil on the podium here."

Cruz believes not standing up and speaking the truth "with a smile" is something that hurts Republicans.

"Every time we have Republicans who shy away, who don't want to engage, who don't want to speak the truth, we lose," said Cruz.

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