On Monday’s “Kuhner Report” on Boston’s 680 WRKO, Republican presidential candidate and Texas Senator Ted Cruz criticized fellow GOP candidate Donald Trump by saying Trump has “a record of standing with Wall Street and the giant banks,” “someone who has been part of” DC corruption, and “if you want yet another Republican to cozy up to [Sen.] Chuck Schumer (D-NY)” you should support Trump.
Cruz said Trump, “seems very rattled right now. He has been launching an awful lot of attacks in the last couple of days, and, you know, it seemed every time his his poll numbers go down he gets angrier and angrier, and he lashes out.”
Cruz added that while, “I have no intention of responding in kind. I like Donald Trump I respect Donald Trump. And I don’t intend to choose to engage in a food fight or personal insults.” Voters are interested in issues.
Cruz then stated, “his critique of me today on TV is that he says we need a leader who will get along in Washington and make deals with the politicians in Washington. Well, if you think the problem with Republicans is they haven’t made enough deals, they haven’t been willing to get along with Democrats enough, and give in to [Sen.] Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and [Rep.] Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) enough then maybe his critique has some force, but if you think the problem is we haven’t had enough leaders in Washington who actually honor the promises they made to the voters, who actually stand and fight for conservative principles, who stand and fight for the Bill of Rights and Constitution, then that explains why conservatives are uniting behind our campaign, because frankly, they don’t want someone who is well-liked in Washington because he’s going along to get along, and contributing to the loss of freedom and the bankrupting our country.”
The discussion then turned to Trump’s charges that Cruz took loans from large banks and didn’t disclose them. Cruz said, “It is a ridiculous charge.” He continued that when he ran for the Senate, his opponent had lots of financial backing, so he and his wife “put our entire liquid net worth into the race. We put our savings into the race. We sold some stocks and put that money into the race, and then we took loans against our life savings and put those loans into the race. Those are the loans he’s talking about, is that I put up our life savings as collateral to then take that money and invest in our campaign to mobilize and energize courageous conservatives across the state. And by the way, those loans were entirely disclosed on public filings with the US Senate. This entire hit, was a hit piece that came from the New York Times, because of a paperwork error. We filed it on one public form with the United States Senate, but we didn’t file it on a second public form with the FEC, and so it was entirely publicly disclosed, but there was a paperwork error.”
Cruz then argued, “it is more than a little rich for Mr. Trump to make that accusation. You want to assess who stands with Wall Street? Then look at the actual records of the candidates. Every day I’ve been in the US and I have stood against the cronyism, and the Washington cartel. I have stood up to both Democrats and Republicans. Listen Donald Trump, vocally and enthusiastically supported TARP, the bailout of the big banks. He vocally and enthusiastically supported Barack Obama’s stimulus plan, and indeed, he said the stimulus wasn’t big enough, it needed to be a larger. And Barack — and Mr. Trump argued that Obamacare should be expanded to make it socialized medicine. Now, that is very much a record of standing with Wall Street and the giant banks. My record is exactly the opposite.”
Cruz further said, “You know, you and I are both, like every one of your listeners, have been burned over and over again, where we listen to politicians, they sound great, as they say what we wanna hear on the road. And if you noticed, by the way, in a Republican primary nobody ever runs and says ‘I’m an establishment moderate. I don’t stand for anything.’ They all say they’re a conservative. … And so the most important question for anyone in Republican primary to ask is how do we distinguish between who’s telling the truth, and who is yet another politician just saying on the trail what they think we wanna hear. And the only way I know to do that that is effective is to not listen to what any of us say. Don’t listen to what I say. Don’t listen to what Donald Trump says. Don’t listen to what any of us say on the campaign trail. But rather, follow the biblical principle, you shall know them by their fruits. Ask what have they done? And I would point out there is a marked difference. My entire life, I have stood and fought for conservative principles. I have been a consistent conservative. A fiscal conservative, a national security conservative, a social conservative, stood and fought with the American people. And you know, Jeff, you want to understand a very simple difference. I’m pretty confident, that you, Jeffrey Kuhner has never contributed a 100,000 dollars to the Bill and Hillary Clinton Foundation. Donald Trump has. Now that indicates something. I’m fairly certain you, Jeffrey Kuhner, didn’t give 50,000 dollars to Rahm Emanuel, Barack Obama’s chief of staff, and I would note that that contribution came in December of 2010, after the 2010 Tea Party tidal wave.”
Cruz was then asked about Trump’s defense that he only donated this money because it was smart business. He responded, “Number one, if you’re looking for someone to take on the corruption of Washington. You should look to someone who has a record of standing up to the corruption of Washington, not someone who has been part of it, and whose explanation is, ‘Well, fine, I was buying politicians, but everybody does it.’ That’s not how you break the Washington cartel. You know what, I could just said, in Washington, ‘Well, I’ll go along to get along with Republican leadership, because everybody does it.’ That’s how we got this problem. Look, Donald Trump’s critique of me this morning is that I’m not going to be willing to make deals with the Democrats and go along to get along, and that’s what we need. If you agree with that, if you want yet another Republican to cozy up to Chuck Schumer, by the way he’s written checks to Chuck Schumer, I never have, then you ought to be backing him. But if you think we need Republicans who are willing to stand up to Washington, then this decision becomes. far far easier.”
Cruz also argued that while Trump claims his donations to liberal politicians were just business moves, Trump “agreed substantively with the Democratic politicians on issue, after issue, after issue.” He then declared, So, if he’s giving checks to Democratic politicians, and he supports their views, whether it’s partial-birth abortion, whether it’s TARP and the big bank bailout, whether it’s expanding Obamacare to make it socialized medicine, whether it is Obama’s stimulus, then it starts to suggest, gosh, if he publicly supports their views, if he finances their causes, and if he’s done so for sixty years of his life, and then suddenly when he announces as a candidate for president, every single one of his views changes, listen, if he has had a change of heart, I am thrilled, and I welcome more and more people coming over to the conservative side of things. But as voters, we’ve been burned by politicians who say what we want to hear. And I’ll tell you, the only test that has ever worked is to look at who has walked the walk, and who has actually stood up.”
(h/t Andrew Kaczynski)
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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