Posted on 08/10/2015 8:07:54 PM PDT by VinL
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Monday warned that the Republican presidential candidates who are slamming Donald Trump do so at their political peril.
Cruz’s remarks, which came during an interview with POLITICO as he swings through the South on a bus tour, are among the most detailed comments to date regarding his reluctance to criticize the real estate mogul, who is currently leading the polls in the GOP primary.
“I would … note that an awful lot of Republicans, including other Republican candidates, have gone out of their way to smack Donald Trump with a stick. Now I think that’s just foolish,” he said.
Asked why, Cruz paused and then replied, “Donald Trump had a rally in Phoenix, Ariz. [to which] between 10 and 20 thousand people came out. When you attack and vilify the people at that rally as crazies, it does nothing to help Republicans win in 2016. I’d like every single person at that rally to show up and vote in 2016, knock on doors with energy and passion, and turn this country around. If Washington politicians show contempt and condescension to those [voters,] that is a path to losing at the ballot box.”
And when asked whether he wants those voters to eventually support him, he replied, “It is my hope to earn the support of the supporters for every other candidate in 2016.”
In contrast to most of the other Republican presidential contenders, Cruz has refrained from directly condemning Trump for making comments targeted at prisoners of war and at women, even as he has indicated he doesn’t agree with the sentiments. He has said that he doesn’t want to engage in “Republican-on-Republican violence.”
When a reporter noted that he is one of the most outspoken critics of Republican leadership in Congress, Cruz stressed that he has no problem highlighting policy differences, and may do so down the road with Trump.
“There are no doubts that there are policy differences between me and Donald Trump’s past policy positions,” Cruz said.
For example, Trump drew fire from other Republicans — though not from Cruz — when during the first GOP presidential debate last week he appeared to take a favorable view of single-payer health care in other countries.
“There may well come a time in this conversation where we discuss those differences more fully,” he continued. “No one is asking about tax policy. [The media] wants me to comment on the salacious back-and-forth, and I’m not going to play that game.”
Instead, he was quick to praise Trump for bringing the issue of illegal immigration to the forefront. Cruz, who takes a tough line on illegal immigration, may have crossover appeal to some of the same voters who are turning out for Trump, an anti-illegal immigration hardliner who has made highly controversial comments about undocumented immigrants.
“I am grateful to Donald Trump for forcing the media to talk about illegal immigration,” he said. “Illegal immigration is a tremendously important challenge facing this country, and it is an issue where I have been leading the fight for many years.”
[[ Ultimately, these are Ted Cruz voters—— they just don’t realize yet.]]
Amen, VinL. Thank you, Jesus.;-)
Cruz is right. The media are egging on these attacks. It’s a similar tactic to their role as guardians of political correctness; they get a Republican to beg forgiveness. This is geeting Republicans to dance to a different tune, but dancing nonetheless. Any Republican who acquiesces to thier demands surrenders the sovereignty of their campaign to the democrat media. The media then determines wins the nomination when they get all the candidates dancing.
Leave it to a "journalist" to ask a lame, stupid, saccharine simpleton question such as "Would you like for those voters to eventually support you?"
Hint to journalists: If everyone already knows how the subject is going to answer a question, it's a crappy question.
Because they are all Democrats. Megyn especially is an Obama-Loving Liberal Democrat.
The GOPe cronies are sending their best assets to battle Trump and take him out for the team. They all end up getting the crap beat out of them and end up with no money to pay their staffers (Perry). In the end when they have no one left, their great champion Jebba the Hut will try to squash him.
I honestly think Trump is too vain for that, but it is food for thought.
Strange... I was just thinking about Trump giving that grieving dad a national stage to grieve over the loss of his cherished son. I sure hope that man is able to have a lighter heart over his greatest loss, a father could suffer.
Nobody will ever tarnish Trump for that selfless act. Thank goodness Cruz took good notes.
I feel the exact same way. Time will tell....
Silly goose. I have a list. Trump is on top, (Cruz was until he voted for TPA), Cruz is second, Carson, then Jindahl. If none of my list get the nomination, I weaponize my vote and pick a third party candidate.
I saw Laura Ingraham say the same thing on the panel of Bret Baier’s show tonight. She said, basically, let this play out. If Trump is going to fail as a candidate, let the voters decide instead of trying to marginalize anyone who supports Trump.
The amazing thing is that the other two on the panel Krauthammer and some other smug jerk, were decrying how “others” on the stage took away from the serious candidates. And who were those serious candidates? Wby Jeb and Kasich and Rubio and Walker (ok, like that last one).
Laura gave it back to the two panelists and said, in effect, that their attitude of deciding who was and wasn’t serious was exactly what voters were sick of. They were sick of the “betters” telling us who we should like, who was worthy.
I simply cannot believe the disconnect between the inside the Beltway idiots like Krauthammer and Will and the base of this party.
A man Trump could and probably will support in the end.
This is the language of a statesman
Ted and Trump had the “meeting” weeks ago and they’ve got each others backs until the last 2 seats..
Cruz is smart.
You can not harm yourself when you do not speaking ill of others. Winds can change at the spur of the moment, why get caught in a tornado?
According to CR Cruz has a 96% rating. The only Senator with 100% is Mike Lee and he’s not running.
We don’t know what Trump’s rating is. We know he’s conservative on a few issues. The rest, who knows? Not discussed yet.
I heard Laura too. She was dead on with this one.
Pretty good without a prompter.
I would have frozen up.
I am trying to find out what his speaking schedule is and checked FB and TedCruz.org but could not find it.
I've decided given that Trump hasn't disappointed me even once in all this lead-up to today, I will commit to giving him 3 mistakes to make. I don't think he's committed even one yet, so he has a long way to go. Or, given his penchant for saying exactly what he thinks, it could be just days from now!
[[I will be giving him another donation tonight. Go Cruz go!!!!]]
Go, Fungi, Go. (I can’t believe I’m cheering fungi!)
I have donated also. We need to remember FR too!!!
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