Cruz, Trump Battle Turns Ugly

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is doubling down on his “New York values” attack against Donald Trump, counting on Republican voters, particularly in Iowa and the South, to believe that they do indeed apply to Trump.

In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Cruz connected Trump to liberal New York politicians such as New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, citing his financial support for them.

“Donald Trump has supported liberal candidates on a lot of positions,” he said.

Cruz had taken his shot against Tump’s “New York values” during last week’s debate and missed, incurring successful return fire in the form of a reference by Trump to New Yorkers’ heroism on Sept. 11, 2001. But Cruz clearly thinks he has found the chink in Trump’s armor. The business mogul’s evolution over the years from someone who had views in common with New York liberals into a populist conservative hoping to sway voters whose values are far different.

Cruz accused Trump of inventing the New York values theme himself.

“That formulation didn’t come from me, it came from Trump,” Cruz said. “He explained that his views were very pro-choice, open to partial birth abortion and gay marriage.”

Cruz was referring to a short video from a 1999 “Meet the Press” interview, touted by Cruz after the debate, in which Trump himself showcased his New York values.

“Look, I’m very pro-choice,” Trump said on the video. “Again, it may be a little bit of my New York background … My views are a little bit different than if I lived in Iowa, perhaps.”

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Trump, meanwhile, continued to push his theme that Cruz is in the back pocket of donors, even though Trump was booed for making the charge Saturday at a Tea Party gathering in South Carolina.

“Ted Cruz, he’s got a lot of people putting big money in — probably maybe Goldman Sachs, we’ll have to ask. I mean, they loaned him a million dollars, so they certainly have control over him,” Trump said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Trump, in an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” also threw in some vintage ad hominem rhetoric.

“Look, the truth is, he’s a nasty guy,” Trump said of Cruz. “He was so nice to me. I mean, I knew it. I was watching. I kept saying come on Ted. Let’s go, OK. But he’s a nasty guy. Nobody likes him. Nobody in Congress likes him. Nobody likes him anywhere once they get to know him.”

Trump is now working hard to paint Cruz as a flip flopper who will say anything to get elected, as he tries to maintain his front-runner status.

On “This Week,” Trump went after Cruz for his stance on immigration.

“Senator Cruz is very weak on illegal immigration,” he said. “He only got strong in the last little while. In fact, the other day, I heard him say he wanted to build a wall. Where has that been? All of a sudden he wants to build a wall.”

On “Meet the Press,” Establishment candidate Florida Sen. Marco Rubio echoed Trump. It is clear that both Trump and now the Establishment fear a surging Cruz and are doubling down in their attacks against him.

“The fact of the matter is that Ted has shown a propensity throughout his career in the U.S. Senate to take one position in front of one audience and then change his position in front of another,” Rubio said. “So he raises money in New York and then criticizes New York values.”

Rubio, too, hammered Cruz on immigration.

“On the policy issues, he used to be in favor of legalizing people that are here illegally, and he said so in front of one audience, but then he puts off — portrays this sort of notion that he’s the harshest and hardest when it comes to that issue, that’s not been his record.”