Texas Senators Cruz, Cornyn express concerns over President Trump and VP Vance's Iran deal

After supporting President Trump's war against Iran, Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz said they're now concerned by the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Iran. 

Cruz questioned some of the provisions of the deal in remarks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol late last week. 

"History demonstrates that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is an exceptionally bad idea," said Cruz. "And I think, unfortunately, the president is receiving some really bad advice on this deal. I don't want to see us send a penny to the Ayatollah."

Cornyn said he hadn't seen the MOU when asked about it Thursday. 

"I'm looking forward to seeing it, but everything I've heard about it causes me concern," he told reporters. 

"I supported the President's Operation Epic Fury because I believe he has delayed the Iranian regime's ability to get a nuclear weapon, which is very, very important," Cornyn added. "But my hope would have been that he would have finished the job and basically eliminated that threat in the future."

For their part, both President Trump and Vice President JD Vance — who led the negotiations with Iran — praised the deal. In France last week, the president told reporters, "Ending the current conflict, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and preventing Iran from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon. That's what it was all about." 

At the White House, Vance said, "The only way the Iranians get any of those resources, not a single penny by the way, from the United States of America under any circumstances, but the only way that they would ever get any benefit of the bargain is if they comply fully and change their behavior."

Under the MOU, Iran will be given a way to have its economic sanctions lifted, the ability to sell its oil on the world market, and potentially receive hundreds of billions of dollars, but not from the U.S., to rebuild its country. 

Cruz said the regime shouldn't be allowed to receive the money no matter where it comes from. 

"The most catastrophic foreign policy decision that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made was to flow $100 billion to Iran. That money funded terrorism across the globe in a very real sense," Cruz said. "Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's billions that they sent to Iran funded October 7th and the horrific atrocities that occurred on that day. If we give billions of dollars to Iran, that money will be used to murder Americans, and so I don't believe we should do that." 

Cornyn agreed. 

"They'll use that money that is being released to rebuild their ballistic missile arsenal and begin to enrich again, and that's going to be a continuing danger," he said. "Obviously, the money can also be used to support the Iranian proxies: the Houthis, Hezbollah, Shia militias, Hamas. And so, I'm interested in learning more about it. But I think it's certainly a mixed bag at best." 

According to the White House, 992 Americans, most of them members of the military, have been killed by Iran or its proxies since 1979. 

While Cruz expressed concerns about the MOU, he praised the President for destroying Iran's military. 

"It took the Iranian regime 47 years to build that military," said Cruz. "It took the U.S. military 39 days to utterly destroy it. I do not believe we should now be rebuilding the military we just destroyed. President Trump's leadership, taking out the Iranian military and preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, was strong, decisive leadership that made America safer. The President was acting as commander-in-chief to protect Americans. I'm grateful for that."