Posted on 01/08/2016 1:39:44 PM PST by conservativejoy
What's worked on other Republicans doesn't seem to be working on Cruz in Iowa, where supporters say Trump's birther-style questions about the senator’s eligibility aren't affecting their enthusiasm at all. "Ultimately any time [Trump] attacks anybody it's because something good is happening with them."
WEBSTER CITY, Iowa - Ted Cruz is doing his best to avoid Donald Trump's birther-style attacks, but it's not easy when you're on a bus tour with a pack of reporters questioning you about it every chance they get.
And when another rival candidate echoes the questions about whether Cruz is really eligible to be president, given his Canadian birth. And when a nemesis of yours in the Senate lends credence to the question, too.
So far, Cruz has dismissed the growing miasma the same way he has done in the past. (Trump has also raised questions about Cruz's evangelical Christianity and claimed Cruz.) He tries to ignore the jab, responds with a jokey counter-jab, blames the media for inflating the controversy and forcing him to talk about it, insists he likes Trump, and repeats as needed. Trump has succeeded - again - in getting the media and other candidates to deal with the topics he wants them dealing with, in the midst of Cruz's splashy Iowa bus tour.
But if Trump’s goal is to turn voters against Cruz, there's no evidence it's working. It's just not clear that this is an issue voters are particularly interested in litigating, though, unlike with the birther movement that centered around Obama during the 2008 election - and there's just too much goodwill for Cruz here in Iowa. The same genre of attack that destroyed the likes of Jeb Bush seemingly can't be applied to Cruz, whose supporters are much more committed and less tenuous than Bush's.
"[Trump] goes after everybody, even poor people who have handicap issues," said Mary Lawson, 59, before Cruz's appearance in Sioux Center. "He says some awful things. I don't want that as our president, can you imagine?"
"Ultimately any time [Trump] attacks anybody it's because something good is happening with them and that's why he does it," said Jim Bolkema, 61, after the same event. "So the moment somebody starts emerging, that's when he goes on those kind of attacks. I'd say if [Cruz] is getting those kind of attacks from Donald Trump, he should be happy, because that means he's scared of him."
"I would care if I thought it was legitimate," said Vickie Froehlich, 61, who drove from Minnesota to see Cruz in Pocahontas, Iowa, on Thursday. "But I don't. And I admire Mr. Cruz, who has said he is not attacking people."
Trump has said stuff that's "not necessary," said Amber Bailey, 37, who is choosing between Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio and attended Cruz's event on Wednesday in Spirit Lake. "This week he's going after Senator Cruz for the Canada thing - like, mind your own business and take care of your own stuff."
Trump is a "jerk," said Nathan Lichter, 28, who saw Cruz on Wednesday night in Storm Lake. "I think he's not nice. I think you can be conservative, be very far right conservative, and still be kind and unifying and not divisive."
Trump is a "bum," said Tim Bever, 65, who went on Wednesday to see Cruz at a town hall event in Spencer. "I think we see through him. We see a suit, all the money, what goes with it."
There's also a contingent of Cruz supporters who see this as just the cost of doing business.
"It was a legitimate concern with Obama," said Wayne Wolf, 56, at Cruz's stop in Pocahontas. "People fall on both sides of the issue, I think it's a legitimate question to raise. I don't have a problem with him raising a question about Cruz." However, Wolf said, he's read up on it and doesn’t believe there's a problem with Cruz's eligibility.
Gary, 71, who was attending Cruz's event in Storm Lake and didn't want to give his last name, said he's still choosing between Cruz and Trump and that Trump's attacks don’t influence him either way.
"It's part of the politics, part of the game," he said.
Trump's motivation isn't really a mystery. Cruz is basically tied or leading in Iowa polls and is rapidly consolidating support among Iowa's conservative elite. Family Leader head Bob Vander Plaats and Rep. Steve King, both conservative stalwarts known and loved in Iowa and key endorsements for Cruz, have been accompanying Cruz on stops along his bus tour. Over the past two days, the campaign has named both of them as national co-chairs.
Speaking with BuzzFeed News on Tuesday night, King dismissed the Trump birtherism out of hand.
"I think Ted Cruz is a natural born citizen of the United States of America, so that would be my answer to that," King said. "Do you see anybody that was in the polls that looked like they were closing in or polling ahead of Donald Trump, and [him] not having attacked them? He promised he was going to do this, so I think it's completely predictable."
Cruz responded early to Trump by gently implying that Trump has jumped the shark, and has refused to go further than that. "I'm gonna stick with Fonzie jumping the shark and I'm gonna let the rest of y'all battle it out and that's fine," Cruz said on Tuesday evening. "I like Donald Trump, I like everyone on the Republican side who's running for president, and you guys have seen as others have thrown rocks, as others have tossed insults, I haven't reciprocated, and I don't intend to start now."
(This approach hasn't slowed down Trump at all; on Thursday morning, Trump tweeted at Cruz offering "free legal advice" for avoiding a legal entanglement over the birth question.)
While Cruz is largely giving Trump a free pass on the citizenship questions, he's not doing so with John McCain, who said in a radio interview that it's legitimate to question Cruz's eligibility and that he doesn't know whether Cruz is a natural-born citizen or not. Cruz told Bloomberg Politics in an interview on Thursday that McCain is playing into the birther rumors because of his alleged clandestine support for Rubio. Cruz repeated this claim while talking to reporters ahead of a campaign appearance in Webster City on Thursday afternoon.
"It is no surprise, everybody knows that John McCain is going to endorse Marco Rubio. Their foreign policies are almost identical, their immigration policies are identical, and so it’s no surprise that people who are supporting other candidates in this race are gonna jump on the silly attacks that occur as we get closer and closer to election day," Cruz said.
Cruz noted that most of the voters he encounters don’t seem particularly interested in this issue." "As we travel the state of Iowa, none of these silly attacks that other candidates are pushing are being raised by real live voters," Cruz said.
It’s rarely about the supporters. It’s the indifferent and undecided politicians fight over.
The damage is done, Trump doesn’t have to say another word about it. He’s nicked Cruz, drew some blood and enabled some of the Cruz haters in the Senate and GOPe.
In addition, if Cruz continues to defend, he’ll be battling Trump with the sun in his eyes.
Every photo I see of Cruz at a rally, it looks like he is raiding nursing homes.
I know that is not the case, but it would be nice to see Cruz surrounded
by younger supporters.
That's because they're old enough to recognize a Reaganite when they see one.
Hello. They are digging into his American mother’s background to see if she became a Canadian. She never lived there long enough nor did she ever attempt to become a Canadian. If she were a Canadian, it would most likely disqualify Ted Cruz as not a natural born citizen.
I don’t think he has damaged Cruz at all. If anything it makes Cruz supporters dislike Trump and undecideds don’t like baseless attacks either.
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Well I expect most of the "real live voters" that he encounters are Cruz supporters
and thus they would not be raising the issue with him. Sheesh.
Yikes!
Dont know how that happened but BF is a huge SJW outfit.
It’s like HuffPo, just with more click-bait.
Trump and Cruz just nixed Hillary’s October surprise.
If you haven’t noticed, Trump has been focusing on Hillary and Dems....and Ted...and Jeb, and Bernie...and O’Malley (blasted him last night in VT)...he doesn’t miss a beat.
However, this is day 3 of the topic in the national news. Not a deal breaker, but once again, sucks the oxygen out of the room for the other candidates and keeps Trump and Cruz in the forefront. Brilliant strategy.
Wouldn’t that be rich!? I don’t know if this is what Trump intended, but he did Cruz a huge favor by making this an issue now.
Yeah, you guys are way too smart for that. Just huddle up in your safe space and ignore the microaggressions.
Yes, it’s quite clear. The Naturalization Act of 1795 expunged the murkiness of 1790 and said children born to citizens overseas were “citizens at birth”. They could have written “natural born” but didn’t.
“Natural born” is meaningless if it can be applied equally to two countries at once.
The fact that the Media IGNORED and PROTECTED OBAMA’S place of Birth should clue you in why you should not let the Media lead you around by your nose....
You are a FOOL for letting LEFTIST DICTATE WHO you should vote for.
You are being USED like a STOOGE.... or a Useful idiot by the Establishment Media.
The Establishment is desperate to divide and conquer conservative votes between Trump and Cruz.
Let me put it to you this way. This issue is not even remotely on my top 1 million issues okay?
You are not going to convince or successfully divide and conquer conservatives.
Sorry... it’s not going to happen.
Conservativejoy = Establishment Troll / Useful Idiot
Trump just said it’s an issue that needs to be resolved. That rat in Florida will apparently see that this is done whether anyone likes it or not.
The media has been whipping up storms this whole election season. Sheesh.
That's what I've been saying, but no one was listening.
Well, I am a Cruz supporter and I am not fooled into thinking that Trump’s answer of Joe Scarborough’s question constitutes an “attack.”
The brouhaha does show that the left seeks to divide the voters who seek to secure our borders and that a lot more Cruz supporters than I thought are both extremely gullible and egotistical to the point that they can not admit they were mislead even when shown the video of the interview.
As long as they vote for Cruz in the primary I will only occasionally make fun of their gullibility.
And yet you make multiple and deliberate personal attacks on other Freepers, thus DIVIDING the conservatives on this forum, instead of debating the actual issue.
If I were an outsider, and I read the comments of both Trump supporters and Cruz supporters on this forum, I would not want to be in the company of most of those who are supporting Cruz, even If I thought Cruz was the best candidate.
Your comments are the perfect example. Why can't you discuss or debate anything with being so hateful ?
To be honest, today is the first day in the last 5 that Ive had any free internet time to catch up on news.
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