Ted Cruz Questions Donald Trump’s ‘Judgment’ to Be President
Updated, 11:39 a.m. |
Senator Ted Cruz raised questions on Wednesday at a private fund-raiser
about whether Donald J. Trump, his bombastic rival for the Republican
presidential nomination, has the “judgment” to be president and mused
about “strength,” according to two people who attended the event in
Manhattan.
The remarks from Mr. Cruz came as he has studiously avoided public criticism of Mr. Trump, who is handily beating the rest of the Republican field in opinion polls.
Mr. Cruz has
positioned himself to be the beneficiary of any erosion of support for
Mr. Trump. While he has said he doesn’t agree with Mr. Trump’s proposal
for a ban on Muslim immigrants entering the United States, he has taken
pains to praise Mr. Trump for making immigration a focal point of his
candidacy.
But inside a
conference room in a Madison Avenue office, with about 70 people pressed
around a table, Mr. Cruz gave a candid assessment of the race, lumping
Mr. Trump with another candidate whose supporters the Texas senator
hopes to poach, Ben Carson, according to two people present for the
remarks.
“Both of them I like
and respect,” said Mr. Cruz, according to one attendee, who requested
anonymity to describe what happened at a private event. “I don’t
believe either one of them is going to be our president.”
Mr. Cruz described
both campaigns as having a “natural arch” with gravity “pulling them
down” now. Mr. Carson’s descent, he added, has been faster.
But he added,
according to a second attendee, “You look at Paris, you look at San
Bernardino, it’s given a seriousness to this race, that people are
looking for: Who is prepared to be a commander in chief? Who understands
the threats we face?”
He went on: “Who am I
comfortable having their finger on the button? Now that’s a question of
strength, but it’s also a question of judgment. And I think that is a
question that is a challenging question for both of them.”
After Mr. Cruz spoke,
one person at the fund-raiser questioned Mr. Trump’s having “his finger
on the Supreme Court button,” according to the attendees, a reference to
Mr. Trump’s prospective nominees for the nation’s highest court. It is
not clear if or how Mr. Cruz responded.
When asked about the comments on Thursday, a spokesman for Mr. Cruz’s campaign, Rick Tyler, said: “Judgment is a question for all candidates for president of the United States. That is the point Cruz was making.”
Mr. Cruz, questioned
about the remarks on Thursday after a speech at the Heritage Foundation
in Washington, said he was “not going to comment on what I may or may
not have said at a private fund-raiser.”
“What I will say is
this,” he continued. “In the course of a presidential election, the
voters are going to make a decision about every candidate. And
ultimately the decision is, who has the right judgment — experience and
judgment — to serve as commander in chief? And every one of us who is
running is being assessed by the voters under that metric. And that is
exactly why we have a democratic election to make that determination.”
He received an ovation from the crowd.
In an appearance on
Fox News on Wednesday, the same day as the fund-raising luncheon, Mr.
Cruz said he liked and respected Mr. Trump and “I don’t anticipate that
changing at all.”
“The reason why I
won’t get engaged in personal insults and attacks, I don’t think the
American people care about a bunch of politicians bickering like
schoolchildren,” said Mr. Cruz, adding at another point, “I’m grateful
Donald Trump is running.”
Mr. Cruz has been
notable in a field that has grappled with how to handle Mr. Trump for
his refusal to publicly criticize his opponent. Mr. Cruz and his team,
who covet Mr. Trump’s supporters, are also keenly aware of the searing
criticisms that Mr. Trump has lobbed at rivals who went after him. Those
attacks have precipitated a decline in some of their standings in the
polls.
Mr. Cruz moved ahead of Mr. Trump in a poll this week of Iowa caucusgoers. But a second poll later the same day showed Mr. Trump leading in the state by a large margin.
Mr. Cruz has in recent
weeks nipped at Mr. Trump, but obliquely. He at one point described
some rhetoric in the race about immigrants as “unhelpful,” the furthest
he has gone in criticizing Mr. Trump, who has drawn withering attacks
from Democrats and some Republican leaders for his remarks on Muslims.
Mr. Cruz told
reporters on Tuesday that he disagreed with Mr. Trump’s proposed ban on
Muslims entering the country, but went on to praise him for “standing up
and focusing America’s attention on the need to secure our borders.”
Mr. Cruz was later asked if he would support Mr. Trump as the Republican nominee.
“I will absolutely support the Republican nominee,” he said, “but I hope and intend for that nominee to be me.”
Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, declined to comment about Mr. Cruz’s remarks on Thursday.
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