Thread: Cruz Condemns Trump’s ‘Gutter Politics’

DIRTY TRICKS03.23.16 6:00 PM ET

Cruz Condemns Trump’s ‘Gutter Politics’

Ted Cruz hit Trump in his hometown on Wednesday, accusing the mogul of hitting below the belt by tweeting a threat Tuesday night directed at Cruz’s wife, Heidi.

It began, as most political fights do, with the image of a naked woman.

That woman, of course, was Slovenian model Melania Trump, who is married to aspiring president Donald Trump. And the image in question, from an early 2000s nude GQ photoshoot, was used in an ad from an anti-Trump Super PAC.

Trump used the ad as a means of stirring a fight with Ted Cruz, who he has taken to referring to as “L-y-e-n Ted” in recent weeks (with different iterations of the spelling).

“Lyin’ Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a G.Q. shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin’ Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!” Trump typed out with his stubby thumbs Tuesday night. Cruz quickly responded with a tweet of his own, as all rational political debates between adults go, assuring that he had no involvement in the unsavory ad.

“Pic of your wife not from us. Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you’re more of a coward than I thought. #classless” he wrote.

Cruz continued this line of attack during a stop in New York on Wednesday afternoon, telling reporters Trump is a disastrous choice for the party and to condemn his recent attacks as “gutter politics.”

(This is easier said than done coming from a guy who has faced accusations that his campaign has manipulated information to help him beat both Ben Carson and Marco Rubio.)

“We have grown to see a pattern with Donald,” Cruz told reporters when asked about the tweet-gate of 2016. “When he’s worried, when he’s upset, when he’s scared, he acts predictably. I will say even for Donald though, he reached a new low. It’s one thing to try to attack another candidate, it’s another thing to come after my wife.”

He said that his wife, an investment manager at Goldman Sachs, had experience dealing with bullies in her line of work, when asked if the comments hurt her feelings.

“Donald Trump doesn’t scare Heidi remotely,” Cruz went on. “That’s gutter politics. It’s not complicated that that’s gutter politics. Donald knows that.”

Yet Cruz also relented that the ad itself, made by the Liz Mair-led super PAC Make America Awesome, was uncalled for too.

“That ad was completely inappropriate and we had nothing to do with it,” Cruz told The Daily Beast. “It wasn’t our campaign. It wasn’t even a super PAC affiliated with us in anyway. It was a totally separate group. I don’t know the person who did it—we have no involvement with them whatsoever.”

Cruz suggested to The Daily Beast that this was a mere intentional distraction from Trump, who was distraught by his loss to Cruz in Utah last night.

“Donald knows that,” Cruz said, asserting that Trump knew the ad wasn’t from the senator’s campaign. “He just used it as an excuse to try to attack my wife, Heidi. And that is—that speaks volumes about his willingness to go to the gutter at the drop of a hat. His comfort zone is insults and personal attacks and bullying.”

During a campaign stop in Wisconsin, Heidi Cruz addressed the situation herself, saying: “You know, as I said, you probably know by now that most of the things that Donald Trump says have no basis in reality. So we are not worried in the least, we are focused on our campaign, and we are going to continue to do that.”

This was Cruz’s first strike against Trump in New York, taking the shot in the heart of Manhattan at the Women’s National Republican Club. In a gaudy ballroom, with a chandelier that wouldn’t be out of place at Mar-a-Lago, Cruz tried to paint Trump’s “New York values” as opportunistic, undignified, and plain dumb.

“I think we have an inherent advantage because the people of New York know Donald Trump,” Cruz said after saying that Trump’s comments about wanting to dismantle NATO were “nuts,” and beating home the point once again that the real estate mogul has contributed money to essentially every bastion of liberal politics in the state in the last two decades.

As the campaign wears on, all the ghosts of Christmas presidential past seem to be lining up around Cruz, seeing him as, ironically, the only potential option to defeat Trump. Lindsey Graham held a fundraiser for him earlier in the week, Jeb Bush endorsed him last night and former governor George Pataki happened to stroll into the same building where Cruz held his event in New York on Wednesday.

“The Republicans need to nominate someone other than Donald Trump,” Pataki told The Daily Beast when asked if he’d endorse Cruz. When he emerged from the building later, he simply said “we talked” when asked again about an endorsement.

The senator from Texas seemed incredulous about all these establishment stalwarts backing a candidate whose primary message is that he hates and is hated by Washington, D.C.

“I had never had someone host an event for me who three weeks ago called for my murder,” Cruz joked about Graham’s support.

But anybody appears like a better option than the guy with New York values.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...-politics.html

That's funny! "Gutter politics". You post a picture of Melania Trump from 16 years ago before she was married to Donald Trump, through your Super Pac to try to snare votes from Mormon women in Utah, and you pucker up and pout because Trump may tell some little secret about Heidi if you don't straighten up and fly right.

We know about your dirty tricks. We've seen them and seen them and seen them. I have no problem with the photo or the ad, other than the part that says "Or you could vote for Ted Cruz". The ad shows nothing obscene, it shows no private parts, it's a partial nude and a beautiful classy photograph for the British version of GQ.

If Mormon women are offended by it, well, gee, what can be said other than "oh that's a shame". Blame Cruz, it's his friends who offended you by making it in an ad and airing in the US market, the friend we've learned being from Britain.

Melania is a beautiful woman, she's a former model and was a working model at the time. She'll be a beautiful, gracious, strong, caring, intelligent and competent First Lady who speaks FOUR foreign languages which is always a plus in the American White House when an extra language or two or three can come in handy with foreign dignitaries.

Oh and lest we forget, she has enough money to buy her own gowns and attire for these fabulous events. I can't wait to see Trump in a Tuxedo at a State Dinner and tall slender beautiful Melania in a gorgeous gown she owns.

And another thing, Heidi Cruz is a well-educated, professional, supposedly modern woman. Why didn't she denounce the ad about Melania and tell Mair not to use the Cruz name in the ad? See, that was the slip up in the little scheme, that little addition "Or you could vote for Ted Cruz". That's like that "voter violation notice" ... clear your record, vote for Ted Cruz and that lie about Carson leaving the race during the Iowa Caucus, "Ben Carson is suspending his campaign, vote for Ted Cruz".

How people run campaigns especially those who haven't run anything else is how they'll run your government.

Haven't we had enough Liars and Tricksters running our country?

I think so.

Ted Cruz Tells Donald Trump to Leave His Wife 'the Hell Alone'

By JESSICA HOPPER
DANE, Wisconsin — Mar 24, 2016, 4:01 PM ET

Sen. Ted Cruz lashed out at Donald Trump today after the GOP front-runner’s comments about the Texas senator’s wife in recent days.

When asked by ABC News if he could still respect and support Trump were he to win the Republican presidential nomination after the latest attacks, Cruz raised his voice and told Trump to leave his wife, Heidi, "the hell alone."

“I don't get angry often,” Cruz said while campaigning in Wisconsin. “But you mess with my kids, you mess with my wife, Donald, you’re a sniveling coward and leave Heidi the hell alone!”

“Let me be absolutely clear our spouses and our children are off bounds,” Cruz added. “It is not acceptable for a big loud New York bully to attack my wife.”

"Donald does seem to have an issue with women. Donald doesn’t like strong women. Strong women scared Donald and Donald is scared a lot these days,” Cruz said.

Late Tuesday night, Trump tweeted on Tuesday night that he would “spill the beans” about Cruz’s wife after the anti-Trump super PAC "Make America Awesome" released an attack ad featuring a racy image of the billionaire's wife, Melania, from her former modeling days.

Then Trump re-Tweeted a post on Wednesday showing a side-by-side image of Heidi Cruz and his wife, Melania, with the words: “No need to 'spill the beans.’ The images are worth a thousand words.”

Cruz pondered Trump’s late night tweets.

“It is not acceptable for him to make insults to send nasty tweets late at night,” Cruz said today.

Cruz said that his wife should be free of being taunted by “a big loud New York bully.”

“It’s the action of a small and petty man who is intimidated by strong women. Real men don’t do that and Donald is indicating the fear that keeps him up at night when he lashes out in anger,” Cruz said. "Donald should stick with attacking me because Heidi is way out of Donald Trump’s league."

Heidi Cruz is on leave from a job at Goldman Sachs while she helps in her husband’s White House bid. She is a popular surrogate for Cruz, often campaigning on her own. She has also been a key part of her husband’s campaign fundraising effort. The two met working during the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/ted-c...ry?id=37907485

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Funny! Ted, Heidi and Romney can dish it out on Melania, but can't take it when it's dished back to them. By the way, it's not a "strong woman" who has her husband up there issuing idle threats and pointing his finger at his own supporters, pretending they're Donald Trump. That's just silly and looked really bad on TV. You looked weak and dishonest.