Sen. Ted Cruz slammed the White House on Tuesday for a `` failure of leadership '' as President Barack Obama prepares to nominate his administration 's fourth defense secretary . The Texas Republican , who is considering a 2016 run in hopes of heading his own White House administration , called the unusually high turnover at the helm of the Defense Department emblematic of a White House that puts politics above U.S. national security . `` It seems what the administration is looking for is a defense secretary who will follow the orders of a political White House rather than focus on defending the national security interests of this country , '' Cruz said . `` At a time when the threats are this grave , we should n't see turnover at the Defense Department than one has at a typical Burger King . '' Cruz said he did not know Ashton Carter , the former No . 2 man at the Pentagon who is expected to be Obama 's nominee to succeed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel , but Cruz said he looks forward to learning more about Carter and his `` good reputation . '' But Cruz emphasized he was unsettled to see several potential picks pull their names out of the running to head the department , including former Pentagon official Michele Flournoy and Sen. Jack Reed . `` It says something that so many people are saying , 'No , thank you , I do n't want to serve in an administration that overrides the Defense Department , that treats the defense secretary as subservient to political lackeys in the White House , '' Cruz said . Cruz made the remarks Tuesday at an event cosponsored by Concerned Veterans of America and the conservative publication The Weekly Standard during which he bore out his hawkish foreign policy and staked out positions starkly in contrast to Obama . McCain : Ashton Carter wo n't be heard at W.H . Drawing often from neoconservative Sen. John McCain , Cruz laid out a foreign policy focused on reasserting U.S. power and values in the world and `` resolutely defending '' U.S. national security . And the first-term Texas senator also pulled from the pages of the Powell Doctrine , saying leaders should engage the U.S. military with a `` clear and stated objective upfront '' and attack with `` overwhelming force ... and then we should get the heck out . '' Cruz also mocked the Obama administration 's failed `` reset '' with Russia and repeated his claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a `` KGB thug , '' criticizing Obama 's response to Russian military action in Crimea with disbelief . `` You literally can not make this stuff up . If 'Saturday Night Live ' were parodying a hapless , ineffective President , they could n't make things up worse , '' Cruz said . Cruz also repeated his claim that the potential for a nuclear Iran is the `` gravest national security threat '' to the U.S. right now and likened the U.S. policy to combating ISIS as `` nonsense . '' Foreign policy is shaping up to be a top issue in the 2016 presidential election as the ISIS threat , Iran nuclear negotiations and sanctions and continued tensions between the U.S. and Russia loom large . About 54 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama 's handling of foreign affairs , according to a CNN poll released last week .
Sen. Ted Cruz said the Obama administration is looking for a defense chief who will follow political orders . Cruz attacked the White House for overall foreign policy failures at an event with a veterans group Tuesday . The Texas Republican also criticized President Obama's decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and Afghanistan in 2011, saying it was "reckless and irresponsible" that he did so without congressional approval.