Senator Ted Cruz will begin airing a new ad in Iowa on Saturday in which he vows to "kill the terrorists," the latest indication of how national security is emerging as the dominant issue in the Republican presidential race.
Mr. Cruz, speaking directly to the camera, says that if he becomes president, "every Islamic extremist will know: if you wage jihad against us, you're signing your death warrant."
The bellicosity is a response to the Islamic State's assault on Paris and the mass killing in San Bernardino, Calif., which the F.B.I. is treating as terrorism. But Mr. Cruz is also attempting to defuse Senator Marco Rubio’s effort to portray him as insufficiently tough on national security. Mr. Rubio has been criticizing Mr. Cruz's support for ending the collection of metadata by the National Security Agency, and a group run by a supporter of Mr. Rubio is airing an ad in Iowa that claims Mr. Cruz voted to "weaken America's ability to identify and hunt down terrorists." Mr. Cruz makes no mention of that commercial or Mr. Rubio in his ad.
Mr. Cruz's 30 second ad will debut during the Big 10 Conference's football championship game Saturday night, which features the undefeated University of Iowa Hawkeyes and promises to be one of the most heavily watched live television events in the state in the weeks before the Feb. 1 caucuses.
A spokesman for Mr. Cruz said the ad would continue to air next week on broadcast television, covering nearly every market in the state.
The ads will be interspersed with another new spot Mr. Cruz is releasing during today’s football game: a testimonial from Representative Steve King. Mr. King, a hard line conservative who represents much of western Iowa, endorsed Mr. Cruz last month.
"He understands that we need to ...
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