Posted on 01/28/2016 2:26:49 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Donald Trump's campaign manager Corey Lewandowski said on Thursday that his candidate would be "happy" to debate Ted Cruz once the Texas senator gets a federal judge to rule him eligible to run for president.
"Once you've gotten that ruling from the federal judge and you're the last man standing in this presidential contest next to Donald Trump, we'll be happy to have a debate with you one-on-one, anywhere you want, because that's the way the system works," Lewandowski said. "But, as it stands right now, we don't even know if Ted Cruz is legally eligible to run for president of the United States."
Trump and his supporters have argued that Cruz, who was born in Canada to a U.S. citizen, is not natural born and therefore ineligible to run for president under the Constitution.
Cruz challenged Trump to debate him one-on-one after Trump announced that he would not be attending the Fox News Republican presidential debate Thursday night because of objections to the presence of anchor Megyn Kelly and a statement Fox issued in response to his complaints. "What this is, is a publicity stunt by Senator Cruz who is continuing to fall in the polls in the state of Iowa," Lewandowski told Boston radio host Jeff Kuhner, before unleashing a slew of attacks at Cruz, arguing that he had used "dark money donors" through his super PAC to offer a donation to charity if Trump agreed to the debate.
"If Ted Cruz were able to disclose the loans that he's taken out from Goldman Sachs and Citi, then maybe he would use his own money for this, but instead he's using super PAC money which I don't even know if he can do legally," Lewandowski said, referring to loans Cruz took out during his 2012 run for Senate that he did not disclose in campaign filings. "And the bottom line is, you know what we've said to Ted Cruz, go into court, seek a declaratory judgment to find out if you're even legally eligible to run for president of the United States." In the interview, Lewandowski addressed his remark that Megyn Kelly had a "rough couple of days after that last debate" and "would hate to have her go through that again," which some at Fox News interpreted as a threat.
"That's not a threat. It's a factual statement," Lewandowski said. "And the bottom line, was, she did have a rough couple days after the debate because what she did during that first presidential debate was she made sure the debate was about her and not about the candidates who were actually on the stage."
Toward the end of the interview, Lewandowski took another shot at Cruz, this time over Cruz's criticism of Trump's support for eminent domain. Lewandowski said that eminent domain would be required to build the Keystone Pipeline, which Cruz supports. "The Keystone Pipeline, as you know, starts where Ted Cruz was born, in the country of Canada, and runs right down to where he lives now, in the state of Texas, and eminent domain is an issue that you know what unfortunately, sometimes you need to use it to get projects like that done," Lewandowski said.
Honest to Pete! I haven't seen this much screaming at a Stones concert.
Cruz was never “naturalized”. I’m still waiting on someone to produce the records where Cruz was naturalized. Why?
CRUZ argued many times before the SCOTUS. I may be mistaken, but I don’t think a non-citizen can argue before the SCOTUS.
Cruz was also elected as a United States Senator. I know person must be a US Citizen in order to be elected as a Senator.
If you thought Pandora’s box would be bad with Obama being ruled ineligible, every case Cruz argued would be challenged and likely overturned. Every Bill passed would be suspect.
Even then, the law is still on Cruz side.
Brave Sir Donald keeps running away.
So now he’s afraid of Megyn Kelly and Cruz?
At this point, or at least up until Tuesday this week, it was to Trump's advantage to appear in the debates. It is probably to his advantage to appear in future debates, too, provided the moderators and network are moderately professional.
The one-on-one debates are generally held after the field has narrowed to two. At that point, if Trump is in the lead, it is to his advantage to NOT debate. Furthermore, the birther issue is effective, and in politics, the objective is to defeat your opponents. Trump raising the issue now, again (and he isn't going to let up) increases the awareness of the issue in the mind of the public, and may result, eventually, in some sort of determination that has more weight than hand-waving and "celebrity legal analysis."
I guess Don Trumpeone isn’t satisfied with his 70% negatives.
I hope Drudge lists Trump for his vote for Who Won Tonight’s Debate. And we all know that, if he does, the No-Show-Trump will be the winner. Trump is usually ahead in the voting before he opens his mouth.
Let Trump prove his greatness.
Debate the best (by a mile): Ted Cruz.
Anytime Cruz wants to he can respond to any on the 3 cases now pending on the merits rather than procedural grounds and standing.
Trump thins he should be handed the presidency without being vetted....Obama without the faux Greek columns and “God echo” stereo effect.
Brave Sir Donald keeps running away.
So now he’s afraid of Megyn Kelly and Cruz?
Now all I will say is: lets talk again Tuesday morning.
It ain’t England, McGee. Also it states “statutes” also in English law, so it is statutory law there, too. That’s the rub in the U.S. -— natural born is born here of two U.S. citizens. Citizenship by U.S. Congressional law is basically statutory naturalization, and does not include the English caveat that entitles English statutory citizens to ALL the rights of the natural born. Sorry, it needs clarification by the Courts and needs to become settled law, once and for all, however the chips may fall. Once a decision is made and every eventuality spelled out, we thankfully won’t have any more of these disputes.
Donald does not need the debate, Cruz does. Which why every Cruz fan is demanding for a debate. Name calling etc.
Yup. He’s playing to win.
“Cruz should have gotten that issue taken care of before he even started his campaign.”
Abdo-lutely!
Obfuscation by Trump. Which Cruz needs to shoot down in the debate tonight in another “put up or shut up” moment to Trump. What Donald seem to miss in his time not attending Law School is that only people who can sue to get a judge to rule on a candidates eligibility is someone harmed be that person being considered a candidate. Which most definitely does not include the ‘candidate’ but could include a competing candidate, like Trump. Cruz can only get in court to defend a suit from someone like Trump, or to overrule some official who’d ruled him ineligible, which hasn’t happened. If Trump really wanted this adjudicated, as the candidate with the most lawyers, the most experience filing lawsuits and the deepest pockets to pay for them he should file the suit himself. Then this can be resolved promptly. A campaign “$38 million under budget” can certainly afford one little lawsuit to take out his chief opponent. Or is Trump afraid to debate Cruz in court, too?
Donald does not need the debate, Cruz does. Which why every Cruz fan is demanding for a debate. Name calling etc.
______________
Yup.
RE: Which why every Cruz fan is demanding for a debate. Name calling etc.
A debate need not descent to name calling. How about debating the issues and where they differ?
Better for the country that he fight light hell to NOT have the issue adjudicated. Some "hero" judge or secretary of state will find he is unqualified, and the poop will hit the ventilator. That will grab the public's attention in a way that the current chatter just doesn't reach.
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