Cruz to jihadists: ‘Your day of reckoning is coming’

by Rebecca Savransky - 03/22/16 9:30 PM ET

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Tuesday night warned he would take action against radical Islamic terrorists if elected president.

“We need a president who makes clear to the world that if you are a radical Islamic terrorist, if you’re a jihadist, your day of reckoning is coming,” he said on “The O’Reilly Factor.”

{mosads}Cruz said on Inauguration Day in 2017, the “world will change.”

“We will come after you, and we’re not coming after you to negotiate, to compromise to capture you,” he said.

“If you declare jihad on America, we are coming after you to kill you.”

Cruz also addressed his comments earlier in the day about patrolling and securing Muslim neighborhoods in the U.S. after terrorists in Brussels killed more than 30 people. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria claimed responsibility for the attacks.

“We should use law enforcement to prevent radicalization and to target radical Islamic terrorism,” he said.

He referenced a program in New York City that he said “worked cooperatively with the Muslim community to target radical Islamic terrorism, prevent radicalization and stop terror attacks.”

Mayor Bill de Blasio ended the program, Cruz said, because of “political correctness.”

“And it’s the same silliness that Obama and Hillary [Clinton] do, where in the wake of these terror attacks, they don’t say the words radical Islamic terrorism and even worse, predictively, President Obama goes on TV and lectures Americans on Islamophobia,” he said

“Enough already.”

Cruz said that presidential rival John Kasich wants to “stick around” in the presidential race but predicted Kasich will continue to lose states in the coming weeks.

“I think when you start losing and losing and losing, your money dries up,” he said. “And when people run out of money, they drop out.”

He said what Kasich is doing “doesn’t make any sense” unless he’s “auditioning to be Trump’s vice president.”

“Because he can only be a spoiler,” Cruz said.

Tags Ted Cruz