Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is using the final days before the Feb. 1 caucuses to remind Iowa voters that his presidential rival Donald Trump doesn’t share their values—and called them “stupid” that one time.
The 30-second ad, released statewide on Tuesday, shows Trump in a 1999 “Meet The Press” interview saying: “I lived in New York City and Manhattan all my life, so my views are little different than if I lived in Iowa.”
Over the sound of quivering strings, a narrator cuts in to say that that difference extends to Trump’s views on abortion.
Late “Meet The Press” host Tim Russert then asks the real estate mogul if he would support a ban on partial-birth abortion as President. Trump responds: “I am pro-choice in every respect.”
Trump’s views on the procedure have shifted dramatically in the past decade and a half, and he now opposes abortion except in cases of rape, incest, or situations in which the mother’s life is endangered.
The Cruz ad closes out with a clip of Trump asking voters in the Hawkeye State, “How stupid are the people of Iowa?”
He posed the question last year at a rally while casting doubt on the believability of fellow GOP candidate Ben Carson’s frequently repeated story about trying to stab a friend when he was a troubled youth.
Cruz has had limited success using the “New York values” line to knock Trump. Lawmakers from both parties have defended the state from Cruz’s attacks, and the Texas senator was silenced during the January Fox Business News debate when Trump invoked the city’s response to the 9/11 terror attacks as proof of the character and integrity of New Yorkers.
Watch below:
Iowa Republican “Yes, there are some stupid Iowans but he didn’t mean me!”
I love the smell of Republican fratricide in the morning.
Well, they are Iowans so they do have to be reminded a few times.
And this is supposed to make them like Cruz ? I doubt that will work…
And then Cruz asks them to prove it by voting for him.