Ted Cruz opened the door to a possible run for president a little wider Monday night when he emphasized that despite being born in Canada, he’s a United States citizen.
The popular junior Republican senator from Texas, appearing on Fox News, made his veiled presidential pitch as he was complimented by Sean Hannity for his rousing speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference last weekend.
“Great speech, by the way. And you got a rock star welcome there,’’ Hannity told Cruz.
“There have been questions raised about the issue of, are you eligible to run for president? You were born in Canada.’’
Cruz told Hannity he would “leave those questions to others to worry about. . . . I've been in the Senate now for 10 weeks and I've got to tell you, we are in the midst of battles every day with folks coming after our liberties and so my focus is 100 percent on the U.S. Senate.’’
But Hannity pressed further.
“All right. But your mother was a U.S. citizen — just to clarify,’’ the Fox host asked.
“That's correct, my mom was a U.S. citizen,’’ Cruz replied. “So I'm a citizen by birth.’’
Hannity, echoing the controversy surrounding the birthplace of President Barack Obama, who also had an American mother, shot back, “I think that I hear birther cries building on the left if you ever do run!’’
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