Ted Cruz Warns Picking Jeb In 2016 Means Hillary Becomes President

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas talks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Dec. 12, 2014, as the Senate considers a spending bill. The House has passed an additional stopgap spending to make certain the gover... Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas talks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Dec. 12, 2014, as the Senate considers a spending bill. The House has passed an additional stopgap spending to make certain the government doesn't shut down at midnight Saturday when current funding authority runs out. The move would give the Senate additional time to process a $1.1 trillion government-wide spending bill. (AP Photo/Lauren Victoria Burke) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

In response to the news that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) had taken a big step toward running for president in 2016, Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) response was a warning: if the right nominates a moderate Republican, Hillary Clinton will become president.

“If we nominate another candidate in the mold of a Bob Dole or a John McCain or a Mitt Romney — and let me be clear, all three of those men, they’re good men, they’re honorable men, they’re decent men, they’re men of character, they’re war heroes — but what they did didn’t work,” Cruz told Politico. “It did not succeed. And if we nominate another candidate in that same mold, the same voters who stayed home in 2008 and 2012 will stay home in 2016, and Hillary Clinton is the next president.”

Politico pressed Cruz on whether that comment meant Bush is in that moderate “mold” and Cruz said “that’s going to be a decision for the primary voters to make.”

It’s hard to see this as anything other than a thinly veiled jab at Bush by someone who also appears to be planning to run for president in 2016 (he did, however, say that he’s a “big fan” of the former Florida governor).

There are a number of reports floating around that the tea party favorite Cruz wants to run as a conservative for president. Asked about when he plans to make a decision on 2016 Cruz said he thinks “it’s likely the field will form sometime between January and June of next year.”

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for grawk grawk says:

    Mitt Romney is a war hero? Was that the War on Dogs?

  2. Cruz is right.
    A moderate like Jeb would probably lose big.

    But he’d definitely do better than a scary nut like Cruz.

  3. I suppose he means the two years Romney spent knocking on doors, trying to get the French to become Mormons. Took a lot of guts, you ask me.

  4. HE’s GOING to CRUZ to VIctorY bECAUSE HE’s GOING to GEt the SUPPort OF the MExicANS, MILLENNIALs, and JEWs. ALL threE tradITIONALy conservative GROUPS.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

74 more replies

Participants

Avatar for austin_dave Avatar for littlegirlblue Avatar for sooner Avatar for brooklyndweller Avatar for doninsd Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for leftflank Avatar for theod Avatar for easydm Avatar for 600poundsofsin Avatar for carlosfiance Avatar for psyclone Avatar for grawk Avatar for norma Avatar for stephen_maturin Avatar for theghostofeustacetilley Avatar for justamarine Avatar for 538liberal Avatar for theotherbear Avatar for bigdaddydrj Avatar for azjude Avatar for cincypix Avatar for GreggH Avatar for meta

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: