State Dept. calls Sen. Cruz FAA comments ‘ridiculous’

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf rejects Sen. Ted Cruz’s suggestions that President Obama used an FAA ban on Tel Aviv flights as an economic boycott on Israel as “ridiculous and offensive.”

“The facts suggest that President Obama has just used a federal regulatory agency to launch an economic boycott on Israel, in order to try to force our ally to comply with his foreign-policy demands,” Sen. Ted Cruz, a tea party conservative favorite, said in a statement in which he posed five questions about the agency’s actions, including whether it was politically motivated.

Cruz said later Wednesday he would block Senate confirmation on all State Department nominees until his questions were answered.

Harf says, “There’s no place for these kinds of political stunts in confirming nominees for critical national security positions.”

— AP