Wednesday, January 6, 2016

As he falls behind in Iowa, Trump takes on Cruz on citizenship.


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Donald Trump Keeps Pushing Ted Cruz Citizenship Issue

Claims Washington Post made him do it


The New York Times reported today that Donald J. Trump continued to fan the flames of doubt over Senator Ted Cruz’s U.S. citizenship on Wednesday, suggesting that his Canadian roots might be a problem if he won the Republican presidential nomination.

While most observers believe that the decision to confront Mr. Cruz more directly comes as Mr. Trump, who has dominated most national and state polls for months, faces the prospect of losing to the Texas senator in next month’s Iowa caucuses, Mr. Trump vehemently denies this allegation, claiming it's just another lie perpetrated by the Main Stream Media.

Mr. Trump says he never had any interest in Mr. Cruz’s citizenship until the Washington Post specifically asked him about it, adding his real interest is in Mr. Cruz's unbelievable evangelical roots saying, "How many evangelicals come out of Cuba." Trump went on to say, “I didn’t bring the citizenship thing up. The Post asked me about it. Naturally, I had to respond.” Trump continued, “I’d hate to see something like his questionable citizenship get in his way. But a lot of people are talking about it, and I know that even some states are looking at it very strongly, the fact that he was born in Canada and he has had a double passport. All I was doing was repeating what I heard. I really didn't want to, but those Post reporters made me do it”

One of those states Trump alluded to in his statement appears to be New Jersey  where Trump reported that he’s seen videos showing Canadians dancing on rooftops in Jersey City demanding that Cruz reclaim his natural Canadian citizenship.

Trump’s major concern seems to be that if Cruz becomes the Republican nominee his Democratic opponent will almost assuredly sue him on the basis of his dubious citizenship, saying, “Republicans are going to have to ask themselves the question: ‘Do we want a candidate who could be tied up in court for two years?’ That’d be a big problem.”

When reminded that in 2008, when the question of John McCain’s citizenship came up (McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone), the two leading Democratic contenders, Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton, co-sponsored a Senate resolution expressing that McCain qualifies as a “natural born Citizen,” thereby putting that issue to rest, Trump's response was,  “What else could they do. John McCain is a certified American hero. Questioning his citizenship would have been un-American.”

When reminded that in July of this year he disparaged McCain's heroism by saying, “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump responded that his comments were taken out of context by the Main Stream Media, saying that “If you read the entire transcript what I also said was, ‘I believe perhaps he is a war hero’ which definitely means I thought that he was a war hero, maybe.”

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