In an exclusive interview with Breitbart News, Sen. Ted Cruz’s campaign spokesman slammed donor-class favorite Marco Rubio for his refusal to tell voters whether he will support President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership, which Rubio had previously endorsed.
Marco Rubio has told reporters that he will not reveal how he will vote on TPP until May 18th or later—at least two months after Super Tuesday and after Republican primary voters in at least 44 states have already voted and can no longer make their voices heard on the matter.
Rubio had previously endorsed Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement on multiple occasions—even going so far as to call Obama’s trade agreement the “second pillar” of a President Rubio’s three-pillared foreign policy platform.
In a Saturday morning telephone interview, Cruz’s campaign told Breitbart News exclusively that Rubio’s refusal to answer the question is “unacceptable” and raises the question of what else Rubio does not plan on telling voters until after they have cast their votes for him.
“Marco Rubio not indicating whether he is for or against TPP, and refusing to answer the question, forces us to further speculate about what else he isn’t telling us. What else is Rubio not telling the voters about his positions?” Cruz’s communications director, Rick Tyler, told Breitbart.
“It’s unacceptable. Voters have a right to know where we stand on the issues. [Rubio’s] saying that, ‘I’m not going to tell you until you vote me in’ is just absurd,” Tyler explained. “Fortunately, the voters are smarter than that. If he [Rubio] doesn’t want to give them information, they don’t have to give him their vote.”
This is not the first time Sen. Rubio has sought to obscure his position on a critical issue that matters to Republicans. For instance, Breitbart News has previously reported how Rubio continues to support giving citizenship–and, thereby, welfare access and voting privileges–to illegal immigrants. However, rather than straightforwardly telling voters his position on the issue, he relies on carefully crafted rhetoric to confuse voters about his position. When asked in Iowa by a voter directly, “Yes or no question: Do you support a path to citizenship for illegal aliens?” Rubio said, “I am open to them being able to apply for… a green card. You can’t apply for citizenship, you can apply for a green card.” Rubio did not explain– and indeed seemed to deliberately obscure the fact– that obtaining a green card is a path to citizenship. Rubio’s strategy here depends upon the voter, and the media covering his comments, not realizing that a path to citizenship and a green card are the exact same thing.
As Politico’s Marc Caputo pointed out on twitter:
While Rubio refuses to tell voters how he will vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, Tyler told Breitbart that Sen. Cruz is “opposed to it [the TPP]. Principally because it was negotiated by Barack Obama and this administration,” Tyler explained.
Sen. Cruz “simply doesn’t have any trust in it– similar to not having trust in the Iran deal. He supports the concept of free trade,” Tyler said. When asked if a President Cruz would implement the TPP as President, Tyler said he would not, “not in its current form.”
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