Republican presidential candidate Texas Senator Ted Cruz stated that “political opponents” of his are trying to “muddy the water” by questioning his eligibility, and accused Senator John McCain (R-AZ) of doing so to promote fellow candidate Florida Senator Marco Rubio in an interview broadcast on Thursday’s edition of Bloomberg TV’s “With All Due Respect.”
In the second part of the interview, Cruz was asked about McCain’s statement that it’s “worth looking into” Cruz’s eligibility for president.
He stated, “I think it is no surprise to anybody that John McCain is going to be supporting Marco Rubio in this election.” Cruz added, “Their foreign policies are almost identical. Their immigration policies are almost identical. It’s no surprise at all that he’s trying to do what he can to help the candidate that he’s favoring.”
Cruz further argued that the legal question is “straightforward and clear.” He continued, “it’s not surprising, Mark, that political opponents, who are worried about our surging support among conservatives are trying to muddy the water, and are trying to see if reporters will run down crazy rabbit trails, because they want to distract from the simple reality that conservatives are uniting.” Cruz further said he was referring to “our political opponents, every other Republican that’s running.
Earlier, Cruz was asked about Trump’s support for a 45% tariff on Chinese goods. He answered, “simple protectionism, enacting large tariffs for the sake of blocking foreign goods, I think historically that has hurt American jobs. I’ll point out a much better approach, I believe, is my tax plan. My simple flat tax, is for individuals a 10% simple flat tax, and for businesses a 16% business flat tax. And we eliminate the corporate income tax. We eliminate the death tax. We eliminate the payroll tax. We eliminate Obamacare taxes. But the thing that’s relevant on the question of tariffs, is the 16% business flat tax is what’s called border-adjustable, which means any goods being exported, whether you’re a farmer, or rancher, or manufacturer are tax free. So, you don’t pay the 16% business flat tax. That helps every American farmer, and rancher, and manufacturer who’s exporting.”
Cruz added the 45% tariff isn’t something he would propose, and that under his tax plan “every import pays a 16% business flat tax, but it’s not a punitive tariff. it’s simply putting imports on a level playing field, so that American manufacturers can compete well and effectively. That will have a dramatic result. Number one, it won’t start a trade war. It’s the same thing Europe and Asia are doing to us now. And so, it doesn’t start a trade war. You know, if the response is that we see protective tariffs going up against US goods, that hurts america. So, this is a response that enhances American jobs without hurting our ability to compete in the marketplace.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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