The prepared riff, coming after reporters surrounded him at a back entrance here, comes after Trump used the 9/11 attacks in NY as a response to Cruz’s criticism of the real-estate mogul’s values on the debate stage Thursday in Charleston.
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Cruz added he was especially surprised that Trump would object to the idea of “New York values” because “he’s the one who laid out this analysis” in a 1999 TV interview.
During Thursday’s debate, moderator Maria Bartiromo asked Cruz to explain past comments he had made about Trump embodying “New York values”. Cruz was born in Canada of an American mother and a Cuban father.
“Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro-gay marriage, focus around money and the media”, Cruz said.
“I apologize to all the pro-life and pro-marriage and pro-second amendment New Yorkers who were told by Governor Cuomo that they have no place in NY because that’s not who New Yorkers are”.
He then tweeted a photo of the ruins of the World Trade Center after the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks there, with the words: “Is this the NY that Ted Cruz is talking about & demeaning?”
He believes Cruz “needs to apologize to New Yorkers and to Americans in general”.
Getty Republican presidential candidates (L-R) Donald Trump and Sen.
In his bid for the nomination, Cruz has gotten almost half a million dollars in donations from New Yorkers, Champion reported. “He has come here plenty of times to gain money for his campaign from people in NY”, he said. He’s so sorry about taking a shot at Donald Trump’s “New York values” that he apologized six times this afternoon. “He’s NY, and he’s got to talk about that”, he said. “And I guess I can frame it another way, not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan”. That window has closed and I think Donald Trump effectively closed it over the last couple of months.
That standard, Cruz says, would disqualify several candidates.
Cruz cites the widely accepted legal principle that anyone born to an American parent is a natural-born citizen, regardless of where the child is born.
CNN’s Chris Cuomo hinted at it strongly Friday morning, and others have quizzed Cruz and his surrogates on the subtext, who have stuck to the “liberal social views” line. “If he displays the type of prejudice he did against New Yorkers, I don’t think he’s fit for the office”.
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But Trump repeated his argument that Democrats would eventually challenge Cruz’s eligibility in court.
