New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he felt a fleeting wave of compassion for Donald Trump when the Republican front-runner defended his home city in a January debate after rival Ted Cruz blasted “New York values.”
“It’s one of the few moments Rev. that I’ve actually felt some sympathy for Trump,” de Blasio said Sunday on MSNBC’s “Politics Nation” with Rev. Al Sharpton.
“He responded very powerfully talking about 9/11,” talking about what New York went through and our powerful resilience as a people here in New York, de Blasio added.
De Blasio is no Trump fan — he called the businessman a racist for proposing a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. But Cruz’s rhetoric on New Yorkers has earned the Texas senator another powerful enemy in a state where he hopes to win the next primary on April 19.
In January, Cruz attacked Trump for embodying “New York values.” Cruz that that despite “many wonderful, wonderful working men and women in the state of New York,” Americans understand “that the values in New York are socially liberal, are pro-abortion, are pro-gay marriage, focus around money and the media.”
De Blasio called Cruz’s comments “cynical,” “opportunistic and “divisive.”
Ted Cruz is gonna ultimately going to pay for being disrespectful to the people of New York.”
Cruz has said he was relieved that New York Democrats like de Blasio were unhappy with him.
“I arrive in New York, and Mayor de Blasio promptly held a press conference to denounce me — so I must be doing something right,” Cruz said in March. “If Mayor de Blasio ever holds a press conference and says ‘I agree with Ted,’ that will be the instant I hang it all up and realize I’ve gone terribly, terribly wrong.”
Cruz has also received backlash from a slew of Democrats, including de Blasio, for his support of increased police patrols in Muslim neighborhoods to quell Islamic extremism in the U.S.
He cited a “successful program” under de Blasio’s predecessor, Michael Bloomberg, in which law enforcement targeted Muslims with increased surveillance. But New York Police Department have said Cruz is misconstruing the program, saying even the controversial New York effort fell far short of the mass surveillance of Muslims Cruz suggested.
