Des Moines Register: Before Iowa visit, Ted Cruz defends proposal for military sexual assault cases
Des Moines Register reports:
Possible 2016 presidential candidate Ted Cruz this morning rejected the accusation that he’s anti-military or a media grandstander for calling for changing how rape and sexual assault cases are handled in the U.S. military.
In my view, we owe our men and women in uniform a solemn duty to protect them,” Cruz said in a telephone interview with The Des Moines Register hours before he flies to Des Moines for his first visit to Iowa. “And to allow a young man or young woman who has stepped forward to defend our nation to be the victim, not of hostile fire from the enemy, but by a sexual assault from her colleagues, is a fundamental violation of that trust.”
Cruz, a U.S. senator from Texas, has come under fire from fellow Republicans, including conservative commentator Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard, for calling for removing the victims’ military commanders from the decision process on when sexual misconduct cases go to trial.
