Cruz: It Would Be Unconstitutional To Keep Muslim From Running For Prez

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, speaks to reporters before a rally in Little Rock, Ark., Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2015. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) did not back up his fellow Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson when asked about the retired neurosurgeon’s comment that Muslims should not be president of the United States.

“You know, the Constitution specifies there shall be no religious test for public office and I am a constitutionalist,” Cruz said at a Sunday taping of Iowa Public Television’s “Iowa Press,” according to the Des Moines Register.

Carson on Sunday morning told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he would “not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.” In an interview with The Hill later on Sunday, Carson stood by his remarks.

“I do not believe Sharia is consistent with the Constitution of this country,” he told The Hill. “Muslims feel that their religion is very much a part of your public life and what you do as a public official, and that’s inconsistent with our principles and our Constitution.”

Although Cruz weighed in on Carson’s comments, he would not criticize Donald Trump for failing to correct a town hall audience member who said President Obama is a Muslim.

“My view, listen. The president’s faith is between him and God. What I’m going to focus on is his public policy record,” Cruz said when asked about Trump’s comments on “Iowa Press,” according to the Des Moines Register.

Cruz’s full interview will air on Friday and Sunday on Iowa Public Television.

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Notable Replies

  1. The truth finally comes out. Cruz is an ISIS or al-Qaeda plant - trained in Yemen, then spirited into the U.S. via Canada. He pretends to be sort of “Cuban” to lull everyone into a false sense of security. But we’re not that easily fooled - just listen to the strident, “Allah is on my side” tone of his bloviations. That’s always a dead giveaway. So how come he disappears for a few minutes, five times a day? Answer me that one!

  2. “We have never seen an administration with such hostility to religious faith. Last year, there was a chaplain in the Air Force up in Alaska who wrote in a blog post the phrase ‘There are no atheists in fox holes.’ He was ordered by his supervising officer to take it down. I guess it was deemed insensitive to atheists. I kind of thought it was the job of a chaplain to be insensitive to atheists.”

    Ted Cruz

    Yes, no religious test, please. However, government officials should make it their job to offend the non-religious. Because the Constitution definitely doesn't protect Atheists.
  3. Muslims feel that their religion is very much a part of your public life and what you do as a public official

    This coming from a guy (Carson) who says tax policy should be based on what his God says about tithing, that the government should regulate women’s bodies based on his religious interpretation of life, and that certain people shouldn’t be allowed to marry because he thinks certain phrases in the Bible are applicable today while others are not.

  4. Hypocrisy anyone: “Muslims feel that their religion is very much a part of your public life and what you do as a public official, and that’s inconsistent with our principles and our Constitution.”

    How is that different than what Cruz, Huckabee, Carson, and the rest of the dominant GOP players advocate every day??? What a bunch of hogwash.

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