Cruz serves up red meat to conservatives

Less than 70 days away from the midterm election, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Saturday urged conservatives to do everything they can to give Republicans control of the U.S. Senate.

In a fiery speech delivered at Americans For Prosperity’s “Defending the American Dream Summit” in Dallas, the prospective 2016 presidential hopeful vowed that the GOP would “retake the United States Senate and retire” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.)

{mosads}The November election would also hinge on four issues, he said, with immigration being chief among them.

“Number one, no amnesty,” Cruz said to thunderous applause, noting that President Obama is considering circumventing Congress and taking executive action on immigration.

“If you support amnesty, vote Democrat. If you oppose amnesty, throw Harry Reid out,” he said, warning that if the president did take steps, doing so “would be utterly lawless.”

Cruz invited Obama to visit the U.S.-Mexico border with him, saying the president couldn’t refuse because “I’m inviting him to come to a golf course.”  

Republicans have skewered the president for golfing several times during his two-week vacation on Martha’s Vineyard.

The next issue for the upcoming election would be “stopping” Obamacare, the president’s signature healthcare law, according to Cruz.

He referenced last year’s government shutdown, when the GOP dug in their heels over implementing the law, arguing that doing so had caused the measure’s popularity to “plummet.”

“I’m convinced we’re going to win in 2014 and 2016 is going to be even better,” he said, going on to predict that in 2017 a Republican president would sign a bill “repealing every word of ObamaCare.”

The line elicited cheers of “Run Ted run! Run Ted run!”

“That’s the same thing my wife Heidi says to me when I go to the gym,” Cruz joked.

He also called for “restoring” America’s leadership in the world, blasting the president for admitting that “we don’t have a strategy yet” for battling Islamist militants in Syria.

“We ought to bomb them back to the stone age,” he said in reference to fighters with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), labeling the group the “face of evil.”

Cruz also slammed the president for not taking a tougher stance against Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russia’s months of aggression toward Ukraine.

“The state of the world is the Russian bear is encountering the Obama kitty cat,” he said, calling for missile defense systems to be deployed to Poland and the Czech Republic. 

Lastly, Cruz said the election will focus on “defending constitutional rights,” rattling off a list of social issues include gun control, education, birth control and privacy, at one point calling for the impeachment of Attorney General Eric Holder.

He ended every line with “Vote Harry Reid out!” 

“We are part of a grassroots fire that is sweeping this country,” Cruz said at the end of his speech. “We are building an army” and urged each audience member to find nine friends to vote in the midterms.