Ted Cruz said Thursday that the core of his base isn't who Washington thinks it is — it's the "Reagan Democrats" who are "the working men and women getting hammered by the Obama economy."
"Every day as I travel this country, people stop me and say 'I'm a Democrat, I voted for [President] Barack Obama and this isn't working, I'm with you,'" the Texas Republican told MSNBC "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough in an extended interview. "The core of our base is very different from who we are. The core are the Reagan Democrats."
Such Democrats, he said, are the "blue-collar Catholics and they are union members. [They are] gun owners, pro-life, spring national defense. [They are] Truck drivers, electricians and plumbers and schoolteachers and nurses."
And all of them are tired of Washington leaders "who are not fighting for the working men and women in this country. That's how we win," said Cruz.
The senator also had strong words about The Wall Street Journal for its support for rival GOP candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, and about the Florida Senator himself.
"The Journal should change their header to the Marco Rubio for president newspaper," Cruz said. "It's going to keep coming because Marco fights for the principles they care about."
Rubio, said Cruz, "sides with" Sen. Chuck Schumer and Obama on amnesty for immigrants and made changes in his promises after telling is constituents that he would fight against the practice. Further, Cruz said Rubio's amnesty bill actually expands President Barack Obama's authority to bring Syrian refugees into the country.
"I made the decision to stand with Jeff Sessions and Steve king and lead the fight against amnesty and we defeated it in Congress," said Cruz. "We both decided to do different things. I honored the promises and Marco did not."
Cruz also slammed a new series of attack ads being run against him in Iowa by a super PAC supporting Rubio, calling them false with their claims that because he supported passage of the USA Freedom Act, he is endangering the United States.
"I stand by that vote," said Cruz. On one side, another candidate, Sen. Rand Paul, wanted the Patriot Act repealed altogether, and on the other, Rubio wanted to keep the act's provisions intact, including allowing the collection of metadata.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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