Posted on 01/16/2016 9:18:45 AM PST by Isara
FORT MILL, S.C. — Ted Cruz, long reluctant to directly criticize Donald Trump, threw caution to the wind Saturday as he ripped his Republican presidential opponent as a fake conservative.
"Donald’s record does not match what he says as a candidate," told reporters before a national security forum here at a church, delivering an assessment of the onetime ally in the race that would have been unthinkable as recently as last week. "I recognize what Donald says on the campaign trail today is fairly conservative, but voters are discerning."
Cruz went on to respond to a serious of critical tweets earlier Saturday morning from Trump by questioning his judgment and temperament to be president. The senator suggested Trump's tweets were caused by a new poll that show him beating the survey-obsessed billionaire in a head-to-head match-up.
"That has got to drive him nuts, and I imagine it sent him out of bed this morning tweeting and tweeting and tweeting," Cruz said. "I think in terms of a commander in chief, we ought to have someone who isn’t springing out of bed to tweet in a frantic response to the latest polls."
"I think the American people is looking for a commander in chief who is stable and steady and a calm hand to keep this country safe," Cruz added.
Cruz also wondered aloud why Trump had reacted angrily to comments Cruz made a day earlier blasting the policies of New York Democrats. The two candidates have been tangled over Cruz's use of the phrase "New York values."
“It does raise the question of, 'OK, if you are offended at my pointing out how much the failed policies of Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio have hurt New Yorkers, then which of those policies do you agree with?" Cruz said. "Given the fact that for much of his life, Donald was financially supporting those politicians, writing checks to Hillary Clinton, writing checks to Andrew Cuomo, it’s a fair inference that he supports their policies."
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. In the interview with Tim Russert, Trump repeatedly attributed his liberal stands on some issues to the fact he is from the solidly Democratic Empire State.
Cruz continued to sketch a number of other contrasts with Trump, bringing up gun and property rights when pressed to detail policy differences with the billionaire. Asked to say where he differs with Trump on national security, Cruz flatly replied, "To be honest, I don't know what Trump's position is."
Cruz's remarks to reporters in Fort Mill represented the sharpest escalation yet in his rhetoric against Trump after months of refusing to attack the billionaire. Asked why he was now raising the Tim Russert interview, for example, Cruz suggested it all began with Trump's questioning of his eligibility to be president due to his Canadian birth.
“Well, it came up initially in response to Donald playing 'Born in the USA' in his rallies," Cruz said. "I made a quip that perhaps he ought to play 'New York, New York,' and Donald got very upset with that."
Cruz and Trump were set to cross paths later Saturday in Myrtle Beach, where they are both set to speak in the afternoon at a tea party convention.
I don't know, of course, but these stories are moving fast, and getting lots of press coverage. The caucuses are a couple weeks out. The good ship Cruz has taken and continues to take some very heavy hits. The qualification issue may well hit the powder magazine before the caucuses are conducted.
Karl Rove prefers a brokered convention, and is counting on Ted to deliver it since Trump’s populist candidacy blew up the old strategy of many conservatives splitting the vote to the benefit of the GOPe’s chosen one.
Perhaps it’s too complicated for you.
Let’s break it gently to the Gremlin Trumpies, Donald Trump owns it, yes he still owns these Tweets.
Do you idolize by implicitly making the ideal the “true conservative” rather than the “humble God follower”?
Lol, keep living in your fantasy world. You seem to be comfortable there.
Trump is a liberal, and your protestations mean nothing in deminishing that fact.
Why fight it? Just admit it, be proud of your vote for Trump, not because of what he stands for, but just because he is Trump.
Eventually, you will discover that you are like the countless revenge voters in other who places voted for their strong man to defeat their political enemies, only to discover their own liberty was at stake.
Lenin, Castro, and Hitler would be proud of you.
Ted has a few problems. The citizenship thing is out there and in a lot of people’s minds he’s not eligible. But the failure to disclose loans when you are a lawyer and the wife is a managing director of Goldman Sachs just is not feasible.
You too, channeling Bernie Sanders?
What is good for the goose is good for the gander, fair play is fair play then.
Ted Cruz’s past should not matter either then.
The supposed Goldman Sachs conspiracy theories ? So what, it doesn’t matter.
The supposed failure to disclosure ? So what, it doesn’t matter.
What is a real conservative then?
They keep throwing that word out there like it means something...Jeb is a conservative...Linda Graham is a conservative...And Cruz is a conservative...So what???
Speaking of commercial airlines. I wonder how many people were hit when Trump Shuttle, with the golden faucets, went bankrupt.
Odd to attack Cruz as a Goldman Sachs Conservative while in defense of a billionaire who supported the bailouts.
Trump has supported nearly all of Obamas's economic policy agenda
Donald Trump on $700 Billion Bailout Plan
CAVUTO: But what would $700 billion or this kind of money do to stop it? All I have seen, Donald, is, every time we shored up AIG, or done this money with Freddie and Fannie, or rescue Bear Stearns, and on and on, you know, we have a brief pop in the markets, a brief economic sort of lift, and then we sell off, and then people get depressed all over again.So, wouldn't this be a more expensive version of that?
TRUMP: It could very well be.
The fact is, nobody knows what is going to happen. The day it is passed, maybe things go to hell anyway. Nobody really knows what is going to happen. But, psychologically, people want it to happen. And, if you have the right people running it — and that is the big question, but, if you have the right people running it, you can make a lot of money. You can take over companies, and, frankly, take big chunks of companies. If you loan this money the way Goldman Sachs perhaps used to loan money, or whatever, you would have--I think you could make some phenomenal deals.
Whats wrong with that? Trump is a akin in view to Geert Wilders a person who uses no political correctness to talk about the evil islam and the danger it poses to christanity,Israel and such.
He does not suger coat with lies such as that Isis has “perverted Islam” when in fact abu bakr al bahgdadi the leader of isis has a PhD in Islamic studies from the Islamic University of Baghdad.
When he was young he was nicknamed “the believer” because he spent his youth in madrasas and mosques reading the quran and obscure liturues on Islam. He can read the quran from memory word by word. The man has spent his entire life studying Islam.
Isis is 100% Islamic, if you look at dabiq there official magazine , everything they do like taking slaves is justified by surahs and verses from the quran that fill often up to a entire page.
They are dead serious to be as Islamic as they can get.
Hey, if Trump’s past does not matter, neither does Ted Cruz’s.
The supposed Goldman Sachs conspiracy theories ?
It does not matter.
My uncomfortableness with Cruz is in his almost-robotic response to everything. He's trying to loosen up and become comfortable being "normal" but you can tell its tough for him.
Cruz is a wonk - and a very intelligent and capable wonk. But's he a wonk nonetheless.
I don't want any more "Constitutional experts" as President right now. Obama was enough.
Our government was intended to be a citizen government. That moniker best fits Carson or Trump. But, unlike Carson who would want to "assemble a group of experts" to discuss before making a decision, Trump simply acts and does.
Anyone who has been in business understands the difference between the theoretician(Cruz), the collaborator(Carson), or the leader(Trump). Rubio is the new guy in the office trying to look good, Jeb the guy who wants to be CEO and doesn't understand how unqualified he actually is, Carly the slighted women who confuses bitchiness with toughness, Christie - the old school sales guy who, while successful, no one takes seriously. Paul is in the basement with his stapler. :)
Try to at least make a coherent statement so the rest of us can figure out what you mean. Its a little early in the day to be drinking. :-)
We need the force behind the face to be the right kind of force.
Donald’s deal dynamic could figure prominently here. The constitutional order was headlined with We The People. In turn, as understood by the Founders, they were (mostly) confessing no king but Jesus.
Recapturing that kind of power order would be extremely helpful here. Donald agrees to play along with the will of a people who in turn have chosen to embrace the will of God. And Donald would be forceful about it, by nature.
Donald Trump : Unstable Thin Skinned Charley.....
Don’t let him near the nuke buttons,..
Kim Gong Un has nothing on Donald Trump being thin skinned.
It shows Donald Trump insecurities.... He seriously needs treatment and counseling.
70,000 from Goldman Sachs in 2012. How much did Trump donate to Rahm Emanuel? 50,000. What did Trump get from Emanuel that made the price worth his while?
http://www.nationalmemo.com/21-questions-for-donald-trump/
Neither is feasible. I’m just saying the loan disclosure is a venial sine, and the qualification fib is a mortal one. I’m not Catholic, BTW, but I dated one back in my misspent youth.
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