Politics

Republican Presidential Candidates Rip Into Obama Over Oval Office Speech

Alex Pappas Political Reporter
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The Republicans running for the White House ripped into President Barack Obama after his Oval Office speech on terrorism and guns Sunday night.

“Is that all there is? We need a new President – FAST!” Donald Trump tweeted Sunday.

Trump added: “Well, Obama refused to say (he just can’t say it), that we are at WAR with RADICAL ISLAMIC TERRORISTS.”

“If I am elected President, I will direct the Department of Defense to destroy ISIS,” Texas Sen. [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] said in a statement. “And I will shut down the broken immigration system that is letting jihadists into our country. Nothing President Obama said tonight will assist in either case.”

“Nothing that happened in the speech tonight is going to assuage people’s fears,” Florida Sen. [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] said on Fox News after the speech. “First of all, we heard tonight that the same strategy that’s brought us to this point is the strategy he’s going to continue with. He honestly believes that there’s a coalition fighting against ISIS. This is absurd. There’s no such coalition.”

“The President’s strategy is not enough,” Ohio Gov. John Kasich said in a release. “Without taking the fight to ISIS on the ground, ISIS won’t be defeated. Since February I’ve been calling for a coalition to do that. We must stop delaying and do it.”

“The #Obamaspeech was an attempt to turn a necessary discussion on terrorism and national security into a ineffective gun control debate,” Kentucky Sen. [crscore]Rand Paul[/crscore] wrote on Twitter.

“President Obama has finally been forced to abandon the political fantasy he has perpetuated for years that the threat of terrorism was receding,” former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said. “We need to remove the self-imposed constraints President Obama has placed on our intelligence community and military, and we need to put in place an aggressive strategy to defeat ISIS and radical Islamic terrorism as I have proposed.”

In a tweet, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum summed up Obama’s speech by saying: “Pres solution – ‘Congress authorize what I am already doing and restrict law abiding people’s right to defend themselves.’”

“Vintage Obama: No strategy, no leadership,” Carly Fiorina tweeted. “Politics as usual.”

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