Sen. Ted Cruz

Now, what does that mean?

It means, as I said before, that every decision is keyed on protecting the vital national security interests of the United States.

So you don't engage in military conflict.

to engage in nation building, to promote democracy, to defend norms.

That was a popular phrase in the Obama administration.

I don't know what the hell it means to defend norms, but I'm not willing to have U.S.

soldiers die to defend norms.

I am willing to put the U.S.

military in harm's way to protect Americans and save America's lives, American lives.

That's why we have a strong military.

And so it means, let's take, for example, when Obama was president,

And he talked about he talked about bombing Syria and he drew a red line of chemical weapons and Bashar Assad crossed that red line.

And when he talked about engaging in military conflict.

I did not immediately reject it.

I said, OK, let me listen to the commander in chief.

Let me hear your argument for why this protects U.S.

national security.

And I could have envisioned.

So at the time, Bashar Assad had chemical weapons.

He was using chemical weapons against his own people.