Cruz: ‘Jeb Bush is a good man’

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Sunday called Jeb Bush a “good man,” but said the former Florida governor will have to defend his record in the primaries if he runs for the GOP presidential nomination.

{mosads}“Look, Jeb Bush is a good man. He’s a good governor. I respect him,” Cruz, a potential 2016 presidential candidate himself, said on ABC’s “This Week. “If he chooses to run, it certainly looks like he’s going to. He’s going to have to make the case to Republican primary voters, concerning his record, concerning certainly his support for Common Core, concerning his policies on immigration, and I think we’ll have a debate on that.”

Cruz said he thinks Republicans are “looking for a leader, who will stand up and lead, who will engage in the great issues of the day, whether it is standing up to stop ObamaCare or standing up to stop the debt ceiling and the debt that’s bankrupting this country, or standing against President Obama’s unconstitutional executive amnesty, or standing up against the Obama-Clinton foreign policy of leading from behind that is so endangered our national security.”

Cruz said he would urge every Republican thinking about running, senators or governors, to “stand up and lead.”

“I’d be thrilled if six months from now, we have a half dozen Republicans standing and leading and making the case,” Cruz added. “There is a better way. We can get back to the free market principles and constitutional liberties that built this country and made this country a shining city on a hill.”