Cruz Brands Rubio a Moderate

As I look at the race, historically, there have been two major lanes in the Republican primary. There’s been a moderate lane and a conservative lane. Marco is certainly formidable in that lane. I think the Jeb [Bush] campaign seems to view Marco as his biggest threat in the moderate lane.

— Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), distinguishing himself from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) by painting him with the moderate brush, Bloomberg reports.

Cruz: Obama Is a Sponsor of Terrorism

If this deal is consummated, it will make the Obama administration the world’s leading financier of radical Islamic terrorism. Billions of dollars under control of this administration will flow into the hands of jihadists who will use that money to murder Americans, to murder Israelis, to murder Europeans.

— Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), saying that President Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran is essentially financing terrorism. Cruz didn’t back down after the president called his comments “outrageous,” Politico reports.

Cruz Outlines His Aggressive Agenda to Undo Obama’s Aggressive Agenda

If you live by the pen, you die by the pen. Everything put in place by executive order can be undone by executive order.

– Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), in a Washington Post interview about how he’d spend his first 100 days as president if he won, pledging to roll back more than just the president’s controversial orders related to immigration.

Cruz Not Gaining Traction with Hispanics

Sen. Ted Cruz “finds himself in a strange position as he sees himself eclipsed both by Senator Marco Rubio, also a Cuban-American, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, a fluent Spanish-speaker married to a Mexican-American, as early favorites among Hispanic Republicans who could play an increasingly influential role in the nomination process. … To Latinos, Cruz often feels more like an afterthought. And while that’s largely attributed to his hard-right stance on immigration reform, prominent Hispanic conservatives offered insight as to why his problems with Latinos run deeper. Rubio, they said, has embraced his ethnic identity in a way that Cruz, who speaks little Spanish, has not or will not.

Reuters

Ted Cruz Would Be a ‘Watchman on the Wall’ in ‘Game of Thrones’

The modern Democratic Party has become so radical, so extreme, that they have determined that their devotion to mandatory gay marriage in all 50 states trumps any allegiance to religious liberty under the First Amendment. We’ve got an obligation, as this conference recognizes, to be watchmen on the wall.

— Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), quoted by Time.

Walker Has Strong Ties to Big Republican Donors

Of the nation’s top 250 Republican donors have given money to Scott Walker in his campaigns for Wisconsin governor, according to an Upshot analysis of Federal Election Commission records and state records. By comparison, 30 percent have given to Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, 20 percent to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and 10 percent to Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey.

Cruz Skips Vote on Lynch Nomination to Attend Fundraiser

1

Number of U.S. senators who missed the vote on the confirmation of Loretta Lynch. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) “went on the Senate floor early Thursday afternoon to voice his strenuous objection to the nomination of Loretta Lynch as the next U.S. attorney general … A few hours later, however, Cruz missed the final vote on Lynch’s confirmation, making him the only senator recorded as not present,” the Huffington Post reports. “The senator’s office explained that he had to catch a flight to a fundraiser in Texas.”

Cruz: Obama’s Not a ‘Distaster’ Because He was a Senator

Obama is not a disaster because he was a senator. Obama is a disaster because he’s an unmitigated socialist, what he believes is profoundly dangerous, and he’s undermined the Constitution and the role of America in the world.

— Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), saying that the only reason that pundits say the GOP needs to run a governor for president, not a senator, wi that “most of the establishment moderates” in the field were governors, reports David Weigel.