New Yorkers were outraged with the comments, turning to social media with the hashtag #NewYorkValues.
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Many Republicans now expect the nomination race to come down to a straight Cruz-Trump battle.
But Cruz’s response has been to double-down: Saturday he released a video of Trump saying in 1999 that “Hey, I lived in New York City and Manhattan all my life so my views are a little bit different than if I lived in Iowa, perhaps, but [gays openly serving in the military] is not something that would disturb me”.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump on Saturday criticized GOP rival Ted Cruz for taking money from donors “who espouse gay marriage”.
On Saturday morning, Mr Trump, whose bombastic style is frequently displayed on Twitter and TV talk shows, delivered a fresh broadside against the Texas senator.
Adopting a mocking, sardonic tone toward Trump that would’ve been unthinkable even a week ago, Cruz presented South Carolina Republicans with the outline of what is likely to be his argument up until they head to the polls on February 20.
Cruz and his allies are determined to deny Trump the victory that could thwart the momentum he’s hoping for ahead of Super Tuesday, a date Cruz has described as his campaign’s “firewall”. “They don’t want to wake up every day wondering if the latest polls might set off the Commander In Chief into a frenzy of tweets”.
“We have to caucus, before we forget, we have to caucus, we have to get out”, Trump told the crowd.
“I saw something that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York”, Trump said from the debate stage.
Cruz’s presidential campaign has raised at least $470,851 from NY donors in the first three quarters of fundraising this primary season, making the state his fourth most lucrative in the USA, according to the nonpartisan campaign finance group the Center for Responsive Politics.
Delegates to the South Carolina Tea Party expressed admiration for both Cruz and Trump, describing the two leading Republicans as alternatives to a political “establishment” that has failed the American people. Cruz’s campaign has been building a grassroots network and recently made a campaign swing through March 1 states, including Alabama, Georgia and Virginia.
“We are actually occupied with work here”, said Ed McMullen, Trump’s co-chairman in the state, “unlike some other campaigns”.
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“It’s going to set the tone for the beginning of the end”, he said.
