Cruz camp blasts ‘hit job’ gay marriage report

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is laughing off a report that calls into question his commitment to the traditional definition of marriage and religious liberty.

{mosads}At a Manhattan fundraiser earlier this month attended by social moderates and fiscal conservatives, the presidential hopeful characterized his opposition to gay marriage as a part of his broader stances on constitutionalism and federalism, according to a “secret” tape provided to Politico.

Cruz on Wednesday morning blasted the report, saying the comments are consistent with what he has said publicly.

“It was a report of a secret tape in a meeting where I said the exact thing on the secret tape as I’ve said over and over again,” he said at a campaign stop at Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma.

“I’m a constitutionalist … and under the Constitution, marriage is left for the states,” he added.

A spokesman for the Cruz campaign called the Politico report “pathetic” in a tweet earlier Wednesday morning.

Politico is pathetic. This isn’t even a borderline good hit job. https://t.co/4LDYM6nFMW

— Brian Phillips (@RealBPhil) December 23, 2015

At the Manhattan fundraiser, after a questioner asked him whether defending marriage was a “top-three priority” for him, Cruz responded flatly, “No.”

“I would say defending the Constitution is a top priority. And that cuts across the whole spectrum — whether it’s defending [the] First Amendment, defending religious liberty,” he elaborated, according to a tape of the Dec. 9 event.

Politico said it obtained the tape from an unidentified person at the fundraiser.

“People of New York may well resolve the marriage question differently than the people of Florida or Texas or Ohio. … That’s why we have 50 states — to allow a diversity of views. And so that is a core commitment,” Cruz added.

The senator, whose broad appeal among evangelical voters has sparked his rise in Iowa, has made religious liberty one of the pillars of his presidential campaign.

Cruz questioned the “judgment” of Republican primary rivals Donald Trump and Ben Carson at that same Manhattan fundraiser, according to an earlier report.

—This report was updated at 10:47 a.m.