It should come as no surprise that Iran attempted to influence the 2020 presidential election in favor of the eventual winner, Democrat Joe Biden, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tells Newsmax TV.
"It's not surprising," Cruz said in a Tuesday appearance of Spicer & Co.", because during the Obama presidency, when Biden was serving as vice president, "the worst foreign policy mistake of the entire eight years of that presidency was the catastrophic Obama Iran nuclear deal that put over $100 billion in the hands of the ayatollah."
By contrast, he said, the most significant foreign policy decision made by President Donald Trump made was to "pull out of that disastrous deal."
"So of course, the ayatollah wants the administration that is going to give him billions of dollars versus the administration that stood up and employed maximum pressure to cut off the cash," Cruz said.
Cruz also pointed out that Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's religious leader who holds wide political power, also routinely leads chants of "death to America" and "death to Israel."
"And if history teaches you anything, it is that when someone tells you they want to kill you, you should believe them," Cruz said.
Reuters reported that a U.S. intelligence report published on Tuesday will say both Iran and Russia spread misinformation during the election in an attempt to influence the U.S. election.
But the report found no evidence that any votes were changed by technical means. U.S. intelligence agencies found other attempts to sway voters with information by Cuba, Venezuela and the militant group Hezbollah. But penetration of some local government systems had no impact on the results, the sources said.
Cruz also discussed the correction issued this week by The Washington Post, which had originally misquoted then-President Donald Trump, claiming he had told a Georgia election official to "find the fraud." The newspaper admitted the quote was not uttered by Trump.
"One of the most consequential results of the Trump presidency into the age of Trump is it revealed the absolute dishonesty of the so-called mainstream media," Cruz told host Sean Spicer and guest co-host Mercedes Schlapp. "President Trump, in a very real sense, broke the media."
Five years ago, reporters and media outlets used to argue that they were impartial and not biased, Cruz said, but added, "Nobody makes that argument anymore. They don't even pretend because they hate Donald Trump so much. They're foaming at the mouth."
The false quote wasn't a minor detail in the story, Cruz said, but the "bombshell damning accusation" that was the center of the story.
"And it turned out to be complete and total BS," he said. "And they either didn't know or didn't care."
The quote became one of the central pillars of Democrats' impeachment case against Trump, he said.
"We had an impeachment trial, where the House managers argued based on this Washington Post story. And then months later. When they have the the audiotape evidence they're like, OK, I guess we got to admit it."
Reuters contributed to this report.
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