Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Friday defended Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) swipe at Republican presidential rival Donald Trump for embodying “New York values,” saying that “we all make fun of New York.”
Perry dropped out of the running to be the GOP nominee in the 2016 presidential race over the summer, stating that he had “no regrets.” He’s been relatively quiet on the election front since then, but he weighed in on Cruz’s “New York values” line during an interview with the Iowa radio show “Mickelson in the Morning.”
“Mr. Trump took umbrage by Ted Cruz talking about New York values, and, you know, became very serious about—as we all were—what happened on September the 11th of 2001,” Perry said in audio flagged by BuzzFeed News. “We were all New Yorkers that day—don’t get confused with that—but you know, I would hope there’s enough humor in that person to understand that, hey listen, we all make fun of New York. I mean, come on, ‘New York City? Get a rope.’ Remember that ad, for the picante sauce?”
The ’80s-era ad for Pace Picante sauce that Perry was referring to featured cowboys mocking salsa that was made New York City.
“So we have fun with that, and I think that’s exactly what Senator Cruz was doing, talking about New York values, and I thought he did a good job of explaining that New York values are, you know, very liberal, particularly Manhattan,” he added.
In 2013, Perry aired his own criticisms of New York City while trying to lure businesses to Texas. He ran advertisements in select cities that were critical of the taxes on corporations in those cities, and the ad that Perry ran in New York claimed that the Big Apple loved regulations.
Comedian Lewis Black responded to Perry’s ad in a segment on “The Daily Show” and defended New York, telling Perry that people live there because “it’s not Texas.”
Watch Perry’s ad below:
