Cruz's 'N.Y. values' jab comes back to haunt him
NEW YORK — Ted Cruz’s attempt to upset native son Donald Trump in the Empire State primary has so far turned on three words: “New York values.”
Cruz’s use of that phrase as a putdown in a GOP debate in January has hung around his neck like an anchor, particularly in New York City, where’s he’s been skewered in the tabloids and repeatedly heckled at campaign events.
But Cruz is forging forward in his quest to pick up delegates, insisting that he wasn’t criticizing the state as a whole, only the policies often synonymous with New York.
“They are the values of the liberal Democratic politicians like Andrew Cuomo, like Anthony Weiner, like Elliot Spitzer, like Charlie Rangel — all of whom Donald Trump has supported,” Cruz said during a campaign stop in the Bronx. “If you want to know what liberal democratic values are, follow Donald Trump’s checkbook.”
But that same Bronx event showed the uphill climb Cruz faces.
Fewer than 100 people showed up at the event at a restaurant, and several of them were there solely to jeer Cruz. A planned school visit nearby was canceled after several students threatened to walk out.
The New York Daily News, which has lambasted Cruz over the remark for months, put him on the front page again the next morning, suggesting that the senator take the “F U Train” to get out of the Bronx.
Mayor Bill de Blasio noted Cruz’s fundraisers in New York, which is home to many rich Republican donors, ripping the candidate because “he wants New York’s money, but he’s happy to put down the people of New York when he thinks it’s politically convenient.”
And fellow Republican Peter King, a congressman from Long Island, said Thursday that any New Yorker needs to have “their head examined” if they back Cruz, who voted against Superstorm Sandy relief and medical benefits to emergency workers sickened at ground zero.
