Thursday on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” with the New York presidential primaries a little over a week away, CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin was asked to comment on Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz’s remarks regarding “New York values.”
Cruz had criticized his opponent GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump back in January for his “New York values” and doubled down on that criticism earlier in the week, insisting he was referring to New York Democrats, including Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D-NY).
However, Toobin suggested it went beyond that and said that it was an “anti-Semitic stereotype derogatory term.”
“[I] think the New York values thing is a big problem,” Toobin said. “Let’s be honest – remember what Ted Cruz said. He said New York values are about money and they’re about the media. That’s an anti-Semitic trope from a hundred years. It’s been around for a very long time. Everyone in New York, everyone in the whole country understands what he was saying. And that’s a big problem once you get to New York, not just among Jewish voters, but among people who don’t appreciate those kinds of stereotypes. Trump is going to hammer away on it. And Cruz can try to explain it away, but you can’t explain what you said when its meaning is obvious.
Host Wolf Blitzer mentioned that Cruz had said he was referring to New York Democratic politicians, but Toobin said he wasn’t buying that explanation.
“But they have nothing to do with money and media. Money and media is Jews. I mean, this is just an old-fashioned anti-Semitic stereotype derogatory term and everybody understands it.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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