Donald Trump declined to take the bait after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) recycled his diss about the billionaire mogul embodying “New York values” during Thursday’s Republican presidential debate.
Instead, he launched into a rhapsodic reflection about how New York City reacted to the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, saying “no place on earth” could have handled the events “more beautifully, more humanely.”
“I’ve never seen anything like it. And the people in New York fought and fought and fought, and we saw more death and even the smell of death—nobody understood it,” Trump said on Fox Business Network. “And it was with us for months. The smell. The air. And we rebuilt downtown Manhattan, and everybody in the world watched, and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers, and I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made.”
Cruz has repeatedly attacked Trump, a lifelong resident of New York, as being out of touch with the values of the rest of America.
During Thursday’s prime time debate, Cruz said, “Everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro-gay marriage. Focus [is] around money and the media.”
