Cruz visits Georgia
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is embarking this week on a fly-around to the March 1 “SEC Primary” states, including Georgia. Here are the Peach State details:
Friday, 4:30 p.m., McCullom Field Hangar, 1723 McCollum Pkwy. NW, Kennesaw.
Saturday, 10 a.m., Ottawa Farms, 702 Bloomingdale Rd., Bloomingdale.
The moment had been building for weeks, as the pair of first-term U.S. senators and second-generation Cubans lobbed attacks via television interviews and press releases.
And on Tuesday night's presidential debate stage, Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio clashed time and again on the direction of the presidential race and the Republican Party itself, from foreign policy to immigration.
Billionaire Donald Trump has sucked up the poll numbers and attention in the six months since he joined the race, but Cruz and Rubio are playing a long game — betting that the air eventually will seep out of the Trump balloon.
“They are feeling maybe that only one of them will be able to survive ultimately to emerge as the main alternative to Trump,” said Emory University political science professor Alan Abramowitz. “Because really there doesn’t seem to be anybody else who looks very likely to make it.”
Though Rubio and Cruz both have conservative voting records, the ideological fault lines between them mirror battles that have roiled their party in recent years.
On the military, both talk tough about defeating terrorism. But Rubio presents a hawkish view in line with Republican orthodoxy through the George W. Bush era, vowing a military buildup and increased surveillance. Cruz pushes a slightly more libertarian strain that gained steam in the wake of the Iraq war.
Rubio continued the jabbing Wednesday in an appearance on Fox News.
“Ted stood up there and said ‘I’m going to utterly destroy ISIS.’ Anyone can say that. What are you going to do it with?” Rubio asked.
“When you support a budget like he does that dramatically cuts defense spending, when you vote against every defense authorization bill ever presented before you, how can you argue that the bill that pays for the military, that funds our troops and the Iron Dome, how can you then stand there and say: ‘I’m going to utterly destroy ISIS, but I’m not going to pay for or support what it will take to utterly destroy ISIS?’”
In the post-debate “spin room,” Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler said his candidate is not an “isolationist” but does want to avoid the mistakes of recent U.S. military campaigns.
“We need to be engaged with the world and we need to lead, but at the same time we can’t run around with military adventurism and do nation building in places that seem very averse to seeing their nations rebuilt,” Tyler said.
On immigration, Rubio took a lead role in selling a compromise bill in 2013 that would have created a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants living here illegally — a long-held desire for the business lobby and GOP leaders seeking to make inroads with the Latino vote.
The bill passed the Senate, but the conservative base revolted against anything resembling “amnesty” and the Republican-led House refused to give it a vote. Rubio has tried to distance himself from the “Gang of Eight,” bill — in which he was one of eight bipartisan negotiators — but took repeated heat Tuesday night from Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., for the effort.
“Finally, finally, finally, finally after five debates, Marco Rubio was asked about his support of the Gang of Eight, which is a fatally flawed position for someone who is trying to seek the Republican nomination,” Tyler said. “Border security is national security, and Marco Rubio has proven himself over and over again to be weak on that, particularly with the Gang of Eight.”
Rubio, meanwhile, claimed the pair are not as far apart on immigration as Cruz's rhetoric suggests. He pointed to amendments Cruz offered to the 2013 immigration bill that would have increased legal immigration, and still allow legalization but not citizenship for those here illegally.
“I have never supported legalization, and I do not intend to support legalization,” Cruz replied on stage.
The Rubio campaign pounced, saying Cruz was still hedging.
“His position was muddled and uncertain coming into this debate, and I think it’s even more so now,” said Rubio spokesman Alex Conant after the debate.
The back and forth at times threatened to crowd out other candidates. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie jumped in during the debate after Cruz and Rubio debated surveillance programs.
“If your eyes are glazing over like mine, this is what it’s like to be on the floor of the United States Senate,” Christie said. “I mean, endless debates about how many angels on the head of a pin from people who’ve never had to make a consequential decision in an executive position.”
The policy distinctions were at times arcane, but the candidates’ tones are miles apart.
“The difference is more stylistic,” Abramowitz said. “Certainly Cruz is more of a challenger, an outsider, or someone who is willing to stand up and challenge the party establishment. He is certainly much more disliked by the party insiders than Rubio is.”
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