Ted Cruz

He had never said that before throughout the first term, throughout this term until right now.

He had explicitly not gone so far as to embrace, quote, regime change.

Now, Ben, you'll remember, what was it, six, seven months ago when I did Tucker Carlson's show, he started by peripatetically freaking out and saying, my God, Cruz, you're for regime change in Iran.

And he had a heart attack and then he began laughing maniacally, which he does a lot.

The odd thing is, I think any rational American should want to see regime change.

If you ask yourself...

Is America better off if the leader of Iran is not a crazy religious nut, an Islamist radical who chants death to America?

who chants death to America, who murders and tortures his own people, who is the biggest funder of terrorism on planet Earth, who provides more than 90% of the funding to Hamas, who provides more than 90% of the funding to Hezbollah, who is responsible for killing hundreds, if not thousands of Americans.

Like, unequivocally, America would be better off if the Ayatollah was no longer the leader of Iran.

Now...

Part of the reason why the words regime change have a stigma connected to them is many remember the Iraq War.

They remember the George W. Bush administration where regime change justified sending hundreds of thousands of American troops to spend years fighting in a distant war.

And they don't want to see that.

And by the way, I don't want to see that.

I think the Iraq War was a mistake.

I have said that for a long, long time.

So when I say I support regime change, it doesn't mean I want to send hundreds of thousands of American troops onto the ground in Iran.

What it means is it is unequivocally in our interest to see the Ayatollah fall.

I think the Ayatollah's fall ought to be driven primarily by the Iranian people.

And it's why this uprising is so consequential, because it is Iranians who are risking their lives to overturn Iran.