Credit – Getty ImagesRepublican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz responded Tuesday night to an apparent jab President Barack Obama took at him in his final State of the Union address.
In his speech, Obama said the answer to defeating the Islamic State would not merely be “tough talk or calls to carpet bomb civilians. That may work as a TV sound bite, but it doesn’t pass muster on the world stage.”
The reference to carpet bombing appeared to be a slight jab at Cruz. The Texas senator had previously attracted attention for saying at campaign events he would “utterly destroy” the Islamic State and “carpet bomb them into oblivion” . . .
“In the speech, I think we all agree that the president essentially called you out…what was your response to that?” [“NBC Nightly News” reporter] asked.
“Well listen, I will apologize to nobody for my commitment to kill the terrorists,” Cruz replied. “And in this speech President Obama once again refused to even say the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism’ — much less demonstrate any clarity, any vision, any plan to destroy them.” (Read more from “After Obama Seemingly Takes a Jab at Him in SOTU Speech, Ted Cruz Responds — and Doesn’t Mince Words” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-01-13 00:24:162016-04-11 10:53:54Watch: After Obama Seemingly Takes a Jab at Him in SOTU Speech, Ted Cruz Responds — and Doesn’t Mince Words
By Ethan Epstein. When political candidates play Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.” at their campaign rallies, you can usually assume they’ve never listened to the lyrics. But Donald Trump’s apparent decision to add the 1984 tune his warm-up music bespeaks a certain political savvy.
For one, Trump’s vision of America, like “Born in the U.S.A.”‘s, is a downcast one: an America that, as Trump has repeatedly said, “doesn’t win anymore.”
(Read more from “Trump Plays This Song at the Beginning of His Rallies Now… Is This a Blow to Cruz?” HERE)
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McCain: Cruz’s Eligibility Needs ‘to Be Looked At’
By Jordain Carney. Sen. John McCain on Monday defended his previous comments raising questions about Sen. Ted Cruz’s eligibility to run for president, saying it needs to be examined.
“I assume he’s eligible but all of these things need to be looked at,” the Arizona Republican told reporters, adding that the Texas Republican wouldn’t necessarily need to go to court but “could consult some respected constitutional scholars.”
McCain caught attention earlier this month after telling the Chris Merrill Show that he didn’t think it was “illegitimate to look into” Cruz’s eligibility. He then added that during a separate interview with the Michael Medved Show that he “would assume” Cruz, who was born in Canada, was eligible.
The Arizona Republican suggested on Monday that his previous comments had been blown out of proportion, telling reporters that “all I said was it ought to be looked at, and then all the sudden kaboom.”
McCain’s comments have earned him pushback from Cruz. The Texas Republican suggested that he’s trying to help Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who is also running for president and who Cruz predicted McCain will endorse. (Read more from “McCain: Cruz’s Eligibility Needs ‘to Be Looked At'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-01-12 00:09:412016-04-11 10:53:56Trump Plays This Song at the Beginning of His Rallies Now… Is This a Blow to Cruz?
Ted Cruz said Thursday that Hillary Clinton’s support for unbridled abortion-on-demand will prove costly with an electoral demographic that the Democratic Party has largely taken for granted: Hispanics.
At a campaign stop in Pocahontas, Iowa, Cruz said conservatives can win the general election by taking a traditional stance on moral and social issues.
“You know who doesn’t think abortion is a winning issue for Democrats?” he asked. “Democrats.”
The junior senator from Texas pointed to a fellow fixture of Lone Star State politics as his example: Wendy Davis.
Both she and Cruz made widely reported filibusters in 2013. As a state senator she famous filibustered the Texas law restricting abortion to the first 20 weeks of pregnancy, while Ted Cruz held a 21-hour filibuster against ObamaCare on the floor of the U.S. Senate. (Read more from “This Is What Hillary Clinton’s Abortion Stance Will Do to Her, According to Cruz” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-01-11 00:20:052016-04-11 10:53:59This Is What Hillary Clinton’s Abortion Stance Will Do to Her, According to Cruz
By Lisa Hagen. Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Wednesday said he’s unsure whether Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is a natural-born citizen, and suggested his GOP rival resolve the matter in federal court.
“I don’t know to be honest, and I like him a lot,” Trump said about Cruz’s citizenship in an interview on CNN’s “The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer.”
Trump doubled down on his recent attacks, questioning the Canadian-born hopeful’s eligibility to be president. But the real estate mogul explained that he’s discussing the topic because reporters have brought it up . . .
Trump defended his remarks, saying that he’s looking out for the Texas senator.
“If Ted should eek it out, and I hope that doesn’t happen, and he’s got this cloud over his head, I don’t think it’s possible for him to do very well,” Trump said. (Read more from “Watch: Trump Just Raised a Big Question About Cruz’s Citizenship… But Donald Claims He’s Just ‘Looking out for Him'” HERE)
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Donald Trump: Obama Tears ‘Sincere’
By Tal Kopan. Donald Trump says he disagrees with President Barack Obama on his gun control measures — but that doesn’t mean the President’s heart is in the wrong place.
“I think he probably means well,” the GOP presidential candidate said on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday.
Trump was reacting to Obama’s speech on Tuesday announcing new executive actions on guns, including narrowing the so-called “gun-show loophole” on background checks . . .
The President grew emotional during his remarks, with tears falling down his face as he talked about the first graders massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary three years ago . . .
“I actually think he was sincere, I’ll probably go down about 5 points in the polls by saying that, but I think he was sincere,” Trump said. (Read more from “Donald Trump: Obama Tears ‘Sincere'” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-01-07 00:11:562016-04-11 10:54:08Watch: Trump Just Raised a Big Question About Cruz’s Citizenship… But Donald Claims He’s Just ‘Looking out for Him’
You know what you need to do to regain my support and the moral right to ask me for a “critical, personal favor”:
Renounce your Left-Libertarian views on legal immigration. Publicly recognize that we are being irreversibly culturally and politically terraformed at these suicidal legal immigration levels. Take a bold, unapologetic, non-slippery position to slash net legal immigration to zero for several decades in order to recuperate from the accelerating deluge levels we’ve been subjected to ever since corrupt Republicans stupidly went along with Ted Kennedy’s 1965 Democrat Trojan Horse. Not just pause it for 9 months while you “study” the alleged “new information” that we’ve known for decades. Zero net immigration including all kinds of visas while we deport all illegals, abolish anchor baby citizenship for the children of non-citizens, and abolish chain migration. Then return to the kind of sustainable, pleasant, beneficial, assimilable levels and criteria we enjoyed from the 1920s under Coolidge through the 1950s under Eisenhower.
You cannot call yourself a conservative or a Republican and do otherwise. Over-immigration is overwhelming the native-born citizenry’s voting control of our country, with people who will continue to vote overwhelmingly Democrat. It’s a coup d’etat. If not halted and reversed, then within 20 years, it will give the Democrats permanent supermajority control of the federal government and a supermajority of the states. At that point every one of your conservative issues will be permanently lost or vulnerable to permanent loss, along with our liberty, security, privacy, dignity, culture, quality of life, standard of living, cost of living, freedom of movement, elbow room, unpaved private land, and our human and natural environments. You cannot call yourself a conservative while continuing to support immigration policies that are permanently sabotaging all conservative issues.
As you know, I didn’t know about your support for massive increases in legal immigration until you voted for cloture on Obama’s top secret “free trade” Trojan Horse. It was only then that I took a close look at your record. I’d love to know what kind of back-room deal with NumbersUSA resulted in that phony “A+” career grade. It’s clearly a back-room deal, since the grade is demonstrably false, ignoring your objective public record and statements. Really, same grade as our biggest champion, Senator Sessions? After you repeatedly undermined Sessions’s efforts and consistently called for massive hikes in legal immigration? If you’re an “A+”, then what’s Jeff Sessions? AAA+++? That “A+” is an insult to Senator Sessions’s courage, sacrifice and fidelity on this issue.
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2016-01-01 01:16:412016-04-11 10:54:23Scathing Open Letter to Senator Cruz: “Renounce Your Left-Libertarian Views on Legal Immigration”
By Melody Dareing. Trump has been increasingly proactive in sparring with Cruz in recent public meetings, questioning his faith and referring to his father’s Cuban immigration. Trump’s latest jab came in a Dec. 29 campaign stomp to reach Iowa conservatives. During that rally, Trump waved a Bible in the air and aimed a political arrow at Cruz, who remains a darling of evangelical Christians.
“Just remember this. You got to remember in all fairness, to the best of my knowledge, not too many evangelicals come out of Cuba,” Trump said” . . .
The controversial comments are a switch from interaction between the billionaire and the Texan earlier in the campaign. Trump and Cruz have, up until now, showed admiration for one another. Cruz defended some of Trump’s comments on issues immigration and Trump said he would consider Cruz as a running mate . . .
Ted Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, 76, is a Christian speaker and evangelical pastor. The senator’s mother is originally from Delaware and the Texas politician was born in Alberta, Canada, when his parents were working in the oil business . . .
A reason for the sudden Trump turn on Cruz is the latest Real Clear Politics polls, according to the pundits. While Trump remains well in the lead in national polls with 35.6 percent support to 18.6 supporting Cruz in second place, the Texas senator has gained the lead in all-important Iowa. Iowa polls show that Cruz is at 30.3 percent to Trump’s 27.5 percent. Rubio is third in Iowa polls at 12 percent. (Read more from “Watch: Trump Raises Bible in the Air, the 8 Words He Says Next Will Make Cruz Fans FURIOUS” HERE)
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At Trump South Carolina Rally, Rival Cruz Casts Long Shadow
By Emily Flitter. Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump filled a hotel ballroom with over 2,000 people for a rally on Wednesday, attracting die-hard supporters as he has in other cities, but was dogged by a rival who is also very popular in South Carolina: Ted Cruz.
A dozen people interviewed by Reuters said the Texas senator offered a strong alternative to the loud-mouthed New York businessman, though more than half still planned to vote for Trump.
“If he doesn’t drop out of the race, I’m definitely going to vote for him,” Daniel Barrett, 48, said of Trump. When asked why he added the caveat about Trump staying in the race, Barrett said: “He might be rallying the troops for someone else, for Cruz.”
Barrett said his ideal presidential ticket would be Trump, with Cruz as his running mate. “I like Donald Trump’s bold, straightforward America theme,” he said. “But Cruz, I think, is very articulate. He’s solid on the issues.”
South Carolina’s primary election, in which Republicans and Democrats will each choose a nominee from their party to compete in the November 2016 presidential election, is set to be the third state contest, after Iowa’s caucus and New Hampshire’s primary in early February. Winning in South Carolina offers a candidate crucial momentum going into a slate of state elections held on a single day in early March, known as Super Tuesday. (Read more from “At Trump South Carolina Rally, Rival Cruz Casts Long Shadow” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-12-31 00:46:212016-04-11 10:54:24Watch: Trump Raises Bible in the Air, the 8 Words He Says Next Will Make Cruz Fans FURIOUS
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz believes the 2016 race for the Republican presidential nomination is becoming a two-man contest between Donald Trump and himself.
Cruz celebrated his 45th birthday in Tennessee on Tuesday, where the senator stumped as part of his tour of the March 1 nominating states — particularly those in the “SEC primary.”
“I did think it was interesting that Donald Trump said a couple of days ago that he thinks this race will come down to him and me. I think Donald may well be right,” Cruz said in Tennessee. “I think it could easily end up being a two-man race between Donald Trump and me. And I think that presents a good choice to the American people. This process is a job interview. It is a job interview where each and every one of us is standing before 330 million Americans and trying to make the case in terms of who is best prepared to be commander-in-chief.” (Read more from “Cruz Agrees with Trump on GOP Race” HERE)
Former Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson tells Newsmax TV he is “spooked” by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and that he should be removed from his job.
“Anybody that calls a majority leader a liar on the floor of the U.S. Senate ought to be canned and thrown out of the Senate,” Simpson said Monday on “The Steve Malzberg Show.”
Cruz’s comments came after the Senate passed the $1.1 trillion budget deal against the wishes of conservative members of the Republican Party, including Cruz.
“What we just saw today was an absolute demonstration that [contradicts] not only what he told every Republican senator, but what he told the press over and over and over again, [it] was a simple lie,” Cruz told his colleagues. “We know now that when the majority leader looks us in the eyes and makes an explicit commitment, that he is willing to say things that he knows are false. That has consequences for how this body operates.” (Read more from “Ex-Senator Alan Simpson: Senate Should Throw Cruz out, Send Him Back to Texas” HERE)
https://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.png00Joe Millerhttps://joemiller.us/wp-content/uploads/logotext.pngJoe Miller2015-12-21 23:33:122016-04-11 10:54:47Ex-Senator Alan Simpson: Senate Should Throw Cruz out, Send Him Back to Texas
Donald Trump, a candidate even Republicans once considered a side show, increases his lead yet again in the nomination race, according to the latest Fox News national poll.
The poll also finds Ted Cruz ticking up, Marco Rubio slipping, and Ben Carson dropping.
Trump hits a high of 39 percent among Republican primary voters, up from 28 percent a month ago. The increase comes mainly from men, white evangelical Christians, and voters without a college degree — and at the expense of Carson.
However, the poll is not all good news for the Donald. Despite his increasing advantage in the primary, his support in the general election is down. More on that later . . .
Trump’s 11-point jump in support comes after his comments about stopping non-U.S. Muslims from coming into the country. (Read more from “Poll: Trump Jumps, Cruz Climbs, Carson Sinks in GOP Race” HERE)
Sen. Ted Cruz’s CNN debate performance in Las Vegas Tuesday night won him no support with the chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee.
Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., told reporters Wednesday that Cruz may have inadvertently discussed classified information while butting heads with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio on surveillance programs.
“The old program covered 20 percent to 30 percent of phone numbers to search for terrorists. The new program covers nearly 100 percent. That gives us greater ability to stop acts of terrorism, and [Rubio] knows that that’s the case,” the Texas senator said while discussing the National Security Agency.
Rubio countered, “I don’t think national television in front of 15 million people is the place to discuss classified information” . . .
“In 2006, a senior U.S. official said, the NSA was collecting ‘closer to 100′ percent of Americans’ phone records from a number of U.S. companies under a then-classified program, but as of last summer that share had plummeted to less than 30 percent,” the newspaper reported at the time. (Read more from “GOP on Attack: Did Cruz Reveal Classified Info?” HERE)
