Rubio Jabs Republican Leaders: Anger Not Enough

“That has got to drive him nuts, and I imagine it sent him out of bed this morning tweeting and tweeting and tweeting”, Cruz said.

But it was this exchange that was at the core of the SNL skit, and one that many previously have said is what Ted Cruz was really saying when he talks about “New York values”.

Leave it to Ted Cruz to turn an apology into a stump speech.

Cruz then proceeded, in detail, to attack Cuomo, the governor of New York, for his disapproval of fracking, the controversial energy extraction process, while also aiming his sights on de Blasio, New York City’s mayor, for his policies on taxes, charter schools and policing.

Cruz’s camp has been circulating a 1999 interview where Trump explained the reason he’s open to abortion, gay marriage and partial-birth abortion he’s a New Yorker.

Cruz referred repeatedly to an interview Trump did with NBC News’ Tim Russert 17 years ago, in which he defines his “New York values” as distinct from “Iowa values”. As for Maher, he concluded, “I was wondering how long after 9/11 before politicians could goad sh*tkickers into hating NY again”.

The rhetoric between Cruz and Trump has heated up just two weeks before a tight contest in Iowa Feb. 1.

“You know why? He wants to look like Robin Hood that he’s the one protecting the people from the banks while he’s actually borrowing money and personally guaranteeing it and not disclosing it, which is illegal”, Trump said.

Many Republicans now expect the nomination race to come down to a straight Cruz-Trump battle.

Peter Wehner, a Republican official who served in the last three Republican presidential administrations, wrote a scathing op-ed in the New York Times slamming Trump.

The New York Times reported this week that Cruz had not disclosed two loans from big banks, Goldman Sachs and Citibank, in a Federal Election Commission Senate filing. But speaking to reporters at a church not far from Charlotte on Saturday, Cruz, who once declined to attack Trump, shed any caution he may have had about laying into his top rival.

“Any candidate on that stage, no matter how much you like them when they’re campaigning, if they haven’t stood and fought”, Cruz told a Tea Party audience at an event in Myrtle Beach.

“She meant Jewish”, Toby says with a sarcastic grin, “When she said ‘New York sense of humor'”.

Rubio, in third place behind Trump and Cruz in Iowa and hoping a strong outcome there will help him in the New Hampshire primary on February 9, frequently inserted himself into arguments and tried to put pressure on Cruz.

“If you’re going to say something, be prepared for a backlash”, said Eric Logsbon of Dover.

“They run into the buildings, and they’re running up the stairs and they knew it could collapse, everyone knew it could collapse, and the buildings are coming down, first building, second building, and you have people running up the stairs”, Trump said.