Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that fellow candidate Donald Trump “supports taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. Those are New York values” and pointed to polling that shows “I’m beating Hillary Clinton right now and Donald Trump’s losing to her” on Tuesday’s “O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel.
The interview began with a discussion of Cruz’s invocation of “New York values” in the last debate. Cruz said he doesn’t think he made a mistake by using the term, and stated it didn’t come from him, it came from Trump.
O’Reilly then stated, “[I]t seems to me that you were trying to point based upon a fairly old definition of where he stood on issues, 1999 or so, and that point actually helped him. Would i be wrong?
Cruz responded, “You know, you would be wrong, Bill, and if you want to look at what New York values are, you can look at positions that are current. right now today, Donald Trump supports taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. Those are New York values. Right now today, Donald Trump supports using eminent domain to condemn private property to give it to giant corporations. That’s New York values. And I would note that Donald Trump supported Barack Obama’s big bank bailout, the TARP bailout of Wall Street. And he also supported the Obama stimulus. Now, listen, that — he’s entitled to have those positions. I disagree with him on every one of those positions. I think that’s how we got into this mess. We’re bankrupting this country. And the point I was making is those views and values are different from the views and values here in Iowa.”
Later, after Cruz said, “You know, what we have seen under Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, is we’ve seen the power of Washington, the rich and powerful have gotten richer. the top 1% today have a — earn a higher share of our economy than any year since 1928. O’Reilly stated, “You’re starting to sound like [Democratic presidential candidate Sen.] Bernie Sanders (I-VT).”
Cruz responded, “You know what? Bernie, at least, is willing to stand up to the corruption of the Democratic Party. He’s halfway there.”
O’Reilly also said to Cruz, “The problem you’re going to have if you get the nomination is the middle. Barry Goldwater got trounced because he ran as doctrinaire conservative. And we are living in a changing America. You know the demographics are changing. The attitudes are changing. We’re not going to back on gay marriage. We’re not going to go back on a lot of these things, and they work against you in the general election. So, it’ll be very fascinating to see, if you do win the nomination, how you can persuade those people to go for you.”
Cruz countered, “I’ll point out that the polling numbers are contrary to what you’re saying, that I’m beating Hillary Clinton right now and Donald Trump’s losing to her.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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