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.
Trump’s next ad should have “Oh, Canada!” playing in the background.
Trump for President. Cruz is out.
Americanism is what Trump stands for (with some conservative points). We haven’t had that since Reagan. I prefer Cruz but can live with an American President like Trump.
He ‘Trumps’ Bush Jr and Senior.... And annihilates McCain and Romney.
I think it’s good that they demand straight answers from each other. It forces the competitors to go on the record. I don’t like the empty name-calling, but some of that is inevitable.
Guessing that the “tweeting and tweeting and tweeting” thing is calculated to hit a nerve. Even some of my Trump supporting friends are critical of his seeming need to constantly respond to even the smallest of criticisms via Twitter.
It would not surprise me to see Trump back away from these tweets and explain that it was his staff sending them. It may be his only chance....
I was hoping these two would be allies but I guess it will not be.
It’s a campaign with only one winner. Only two week till voting starts so it’s time for a good bash. This will blow over later, IMO.
Ted is now the great hope of the GOPe to split off enough votes from Trump so they can steal the nomination in a brokered convention.
He’s Karl Rove’s boy now. What a tool!
Allies? Did you think Teddy was spending money and time running to... What?
Remember this while the war is on.. Teddy will fight with the truth. DT will use every slimy tactic and lie. Think about that when you vote.
Old news to political junkies like us, but maybe not to LIVs.
We’ll see. I think Trump’s following already knows all this.
Yeah. Probably pretty hard to be allies at this juncture.
The function of the president is not to set social tenor of the country, see Congress, States, Courts. He can promise to nominate justices and judges who will apply the constitution, and he might go further and use the bully-pulpit to call for impeachment of judges who go beyond interpreting laws, and into rearranging and conjuring them.
I don't think Trump is a fake conservative because I don't think he has been advertising himself as a conservative at all. Rather than market himself under someone else's brand label he has been marketing himself as Trump. He has attacked GOPers for being fake republicans, but the case there is self-evident.
It is like all the people here who breathlessly announce the enormous revelation that Sanders is a socialist / communist, as if anyone were under any apprehension that he were anything but. It simply isn't news.
Always accuse the other person of what you are, the playbook of the left.
How does President Trump get anyone to work for him? Gotta come from the left.
I am a supporter of Cruz, and have not criticized Trump because aside from Cruz, he is the next best choice.
Now that we are getting close to the primaries, it is expected that Trump and Cruz will go after each other.
Remember, Trump went after Cruz first for something that even he knows isn’t true, so Trump has no complaint when Cruz goes after him; and Trump is what we called in the Army, “A target rich environment.”
The Trump supports going after Cruz over a clerical error for 1-2 personal loans, that he paid off, have no right to whine when Cruz goes after Trump for his past donations and policy positions which are based on Trumps own words.
The race has now just begun, and it’s going to be interesting.
Ouch!
“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.”
Cruz is quickly becoming a “dead man walking”..
Teddy will fight with the truth. DT will use every slimy tactic and lie. Think about that when you vote.
I am going to take my voting advice from you.
And the gay businessmen thing, what exactly is wrong with that? Do you believe that being against gay marriage or the activist homosexual agenda is somehow mutually exclusive to meeting with gay people?
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