Trump raises Cruz’s eligibility to run for president

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, in his latest ad running in Iowa, tells voters that Republicans need to stand up for their principles like President Obama stands up for his. While the Texas senator lags behind Trump in New Hampshire and national polls, he has pushed ahead in Iowa, which holds its first-in-the-nation caucuses on February 1. “What the American people are interested in is not bickering and back-and-forth”.

Trump continued his assessment of those who plan to vote for him on February 9th in the New Hampshire primary: “I’m winning with the smart people, I’m winning with the not-so-smart people, too”.

While born in Canada, Cruz and allies have said he is eligible for the presidency because his mother’s status as an American citizen made him a citizen upon his birth.

Legal scholars agree that Cruz meets the Constitution’s natural-born citizenship requirement, though it is untested in the courts.

Cruz coupled his immigration proposal with the release of his first television ad. Titled “Invasion”, the video is a hilariously overwrought depiction of mostly white actors in business suits and sensible pumps crossing the Rio Grande.

But that didn’t stop Trump from raising the issue Tuesday. “This is something that you’ve put your family forward, you’ve put your life on the line here for this job, in running for it, you can’t say that you continue to actually support and like the guy, can you?”

Trump ascended to the heights of right-wing political circles in 2011 when he questioned President Barack Obama’s citizenship, suggesting that Obama was not born in the United States.

Previous foreign-born Americans – notably Republicans John McCain and George Romney – have run for president with some mention, but no serious challenges, of their eligibility.

“What you see is that beyond just the horse race, where (Cruz) is in a statistical tie with Trump, he seems to be much better positioned to be the beneficiary of the declining fortunes of other candidates”, Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said. “I hear it was checked out by every attorney and every which way and I understand Ted is in fine shape”, he said.

Trump doesn’t have the kind of support Bush enjoys from the state’s Republican establishment, but he’s deployed a campaign team to build an effort to turn out voters in Florida. Trump has questioned how Cruz’s evangelical Christian faith fits with his Cuban heritage and criticized his opposition to ethanol subsidies. “I am going to stick with Fonzie jumping the shark”, he said.

“I can tell you, it’s a very personal economic issue”.