Sen. Cruz brings campaign tour through Tennessee, Arkansas

The online publication tried to fan the flames of controversy by claiming that following this summer’s Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, Cruz said the gay marriage issue would be “front and center” in his 2016 campaign.

DONOR: “So would you say it’s like a top-three priority for you-fighting gay marriage?”

Cruz: “No. I would say defending the Constitution is a top priority”. ‘And that cuts across the whole spectrum – whether it’s defending (the) First Amendment, defending religious liberty, stopping courts from making public policy issues that are left to the people’. People of NY may well resolve the marriage question differently than the people of Florida or Texas or OH… “And so that is a core commitment”, he said. “This is fundraiser in midtown Manhattan at the Sullivan & Cromwell law firm, & somebody there states, “Im against your view on gay marriage; it is the one place we differ”.

“A genuine conservative, even in the Republican field, would not go after Cruz this way”, Limbaugh told his listeners. “That’s the way the Constitution was designed”.

Anyone who has followed Cruz’s rise already is well aware that the senator from Texas has treated facts like an unnecessary detail; the secret tape is devastating for his presidential campaign because it undermines Ted Cruz’s trustworthiness with his own voters.

“I did think it was interesting Donald said a couple of days ago that he thought that the Republican race could come down to just him and me”, Cruz told reporters at a rally in Knoxville, Tennessee. Cruz will probably say yes, as that’s consistent with his “give marriage back to the states” approach.

Which Ted Cruz do you prefer: pandering opportunist, or unsafe zealot? “Under the constitution, marriage is a question for the states”, Cruz replied.

She said the group began researching Republican candidates earlier this year and decided on Cruz as the candidate whose positions most clearing reflected their own.

“More Cruz double-speak”, Santorum’s spokesperson Matt Beynon stated. Far from the Mitt Romney “47 percent” videos, the audio does, however, reveal Cruz is very willing to adjust his message based on who’s in the room and who’s holding the checkbook.

“Politico is pathetic”, Brian Philips, a Cruz spokesman, wrote in a tweet.

Allen notes that Cruz’s more moderate tone with respect to marriage equality at the fundraiser can be made to fit what he’s said on the campaign trail, but it takes some work. It’s nearly word for word what I said on Stephen Colbert. It ain’t very secret -I know Colbert may not have a ton of viewers- but saying it on national TV, is not a great plan for keeping something secret.