The Texas senator is on the rise, particularly in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses, where he’s challenging Trump’s months-long lead.
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Tuesday night’s Republican presidential debate was the party’s first since the terrorists attacks in Paris and California, and security thus dominated the two-hour event.
During a heated exchange with Sen. Rubio, for roughly the 5,000th time, had to defend (and, to a considerable extent, recant) his leading role in the Senate-passed “Gang of Eight” bipartisan comprehensive immigration-reform bill, which has been an albatross for him in securing the trust of conservative activists in Iowa and elsewhere.
In 2013, Cruz said that, under his amendment, undocumented immigrants “would still be eligible for legal status…so that they are out of the shadows, which the proponents of this bill repeatedly point to as their principal objective, to provide a legal status for those who are here illegally to be out of the shadows. I want immigration reform to pass”, he said.
It was the kind of response one expects to hear in a debate – concise, definitive, vehement.
But he also offered amendments that in his own words were an attempt to “find [a] solution that reflected common ground and fixed the problem”. But he did endorse legal status.
His one standout remark came late, when he pledged to abandon the possibility of a third-party run and commit to the Republican Party.
“It would simply provide that there are consequences for having come illegally, for not having followed the legal rules, for not having waited in line, and those consequences are that those individuals are not eligible for citizenship”. “You can’t even begin that process until you prove to people… you’re gonna bring illegal immigration under control”.
Baier pushed back, citing other news outlets where Cruz said the amendment he backed would increase the chances of the bill becoming law. “The Washington establishment went into full panic mode”, Cruz said.
On Tuesday, Cruz’s characteristic, unmitigated bluster returned.
The campaign has compiled some of these moments into a sort of greatest-hits page on its web site.
A report in The New York Times citing Russia’s official Interfax newswire said Putin praised Trump Thursday after his year-ending conference in Moscow and called him “a very bright and talented man and the absolute leader of the presidential race”.
Some analysts believe he should be trying to defeat the other rivals.
A firm and unyielding approach to illegal immigration plays well with the Republican base, especially during a crowded primary. (Texas Senator Ted) Cruz and Rubio are fighting to become the alternative to Trump.
But Rubio, while scripted, appears far more forthright.
“But if he does not endorse and support me as the nominee, legally he can not be on the ballot in many states so that would be the end of his candidacy – but that doesn’t matter because he is not going to win anyway”, Trump said.
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Cruz, in contrast, concedes nothing, including his dubious shift to “attrition through enforcement”.
