Cruz: Trump a ‘rich, New York liberal’

by Jesse Byrnes - 02/26/16 12:58 PM ET

Ted Cruz on Friday kept his firepower focused on Republican presidential rival Donald Trump as the Texas senator seeks to shore up support in the South heading into Super Tuesday next week.

“Donald Trump, like Hillary Clinton, is a rich, New York liberal,” Cruz said at a rally in Nashville, Tenn., riffing on the businessman in a line of attack he used prior to the Iowa caucuses early this month, which he won.

{mosads}”You have been paying off these people for 40 years,” Cruz said of Trump’s past donations to politicians, saying that he “helped put Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi in power.”

“If you’re worried about corruption in Washington, I’m not sure putting him in the White House is the best solution,” Cruz said, arguing he would be reviled by Democrats compared to Trump.

Trump is riding high, with three consecutive wins in the run up to March 1, when a dozen states, mostly in the South, hold voting, a make-or-break moment in the GOP primary.

But Trump suffered a barrage of attacks in the Republican debate on Thursday night, when Marco Rubio and Cruz ripped into the real estate tycoon’s business record and hiring of foreign workers.

Cruz noted that Trump has repeatedly said he hasn’t made any mistakes but questioned whether Trump might want to “ask for forgiveness” for spending “60 years advocating for partial-birth abortion.”

“Let’s assume he had some road-to-Damascus moment where he realized he was in the wrong,” Cruz said. “Donald has also said that he has never once asked God for forgiveness for anything.

“If someone is actually pro-life today, would you perhaps ask God for forgiveness for spending 60 years advocating for partial-birth abortion?” Cruz asked.

“All of us are sinners. All of us, our faith is between us and God. I’m just saying, those statements … when he explains why he’s never asked for forgiveness, he says, ‘Well, I’ve never done anything wrong,'” Cruz said.

Cruz also went after Trump for suggesting in a post-debate interview aired on CNN that he couldn’t find American workers and had to use foreign workers at his club in Palm Beach, Fla.

Tags 2016 GOP primary Donald Trump Harry Reid Hillary Clinton Marco Rubio Ted Cruz Tennessee