“And I do think it’s interesting that Hillary Clinton’s key supporters are doing everything they can to echo Donald’s attacks on me”.
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Cruz made the comment on the Howie Carr Show, after the host asked him about Trump playing Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”, a reference to the allegation, recently trumpeted by Trump, that Cruz may be ineligible to serve as president because he was born in Canada.
According to the news site, legal scholars agree with Cruz’s description, maintaining that foreign-born children of US citizen parents are “natural born citizens”, a status all USA presidents must hold. Until a few weeks ago, this was largely considered a settled matter. And Trump knows it.
Some of his competitors have side with Trump that it is a liability, while others, including former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, have said there’s no question Cruz is eligible.
Cruz was born in 1970, so this requirement for his mother would have been 10 years in the United States, five of which must have come after the age of 14. The question that the Republican Party needs to answer for themselves now is which candidate would you rather have representing your Party in 2016 – Trump or Cruz? ‘And you’ve bit me even, why? Still, Trump might not want to get too comfortable: 65 percent said the issue would not influence their vote either way.
But Paul, like Trump, insisted he wasn’t raising the issue and that it’s the Democrats who will make it a problem if Cruz is the nominee. They do, however, have a negative gut feeling about the idea of electing a president who wasn’t born here. “So you have to make that decision, folks”. “She’s got the cloud hanging over her head, but Ted Cruz has a real cloud hanging over his head”.
This is, as the kids might say, an A+ troll.
Cruz took direct aim at Trump’s competence. He’s focused more of his energy on the first caucus state of Iowa, where he’s now battling Trump for a first-place finish. “Cruz? Not so much”.
To put it bluntly, Trump has played this beautifully. Ted Cruz went after Donald Trump like never before, portraying him as a stereotypical New Yorker with ties to the Democratic Party and unfit for the Republican nomination.
Donald Trump was in New Hampshire on Monday but his audience was really in Iowa.
In New Hampshire, Trump is the clear leader with 32 percent support among likely Republican voters, a new Monmouth University poll shows. He nearly certainly is.
The renewed attack comes as Cruz plans two Granite State campaign stops today.
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Michael A. Cohen’s column appears regularly in the Globe.
