Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Thursday blasted The Associated Press for its fact check that said President Donald Trump has spread a "false tale" regarding the nuclear deal former President Barack Obama reached with Iran.
The AP rated Trump’s claim that the U.S. gave Iran $150 billion as false, noting that the deal freed Iran from sanctions and unfroze its money abroad, and that the $1.8 billion the U.S. did give to Iran was to pay off a debt from the 1970s that had accumulated over $1 billion in interest. Trump said that the recent Iranian missile attack on Iraqi military bases that house U.S. troops were funded by money that the Obama administration “made available” to Iran.
"To serve as essentially apologists for the enemy of America, it's really sad," Cruz said on “Fox News @ Night” on Wednesday. "I get that they don't like Donald Trump. That is not lost on anybody. The media has lost their minds, many congressional Democrats have lost their minds."
He added, "Listen, here's a very simple principle: money is fungible.”
"Under the catastrophic Obama Iran Nuclear Deal, the United States allowed between $100 billion and $150 billion to flow directly into Iran," Cruz said.
"The Obama administration sent $1.7 billion in cash, in unmarked bills, on pallets in the dead of night on a plane flown into Iran..." he said later. The AP notes that although the $400 million originally borrowed was returned via a cargo plane, the rest of the money was paid later and “not crammed into containers.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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