Texas senator and GOP presidential candidate Ted Cruz declined on Tuesday to discuss the constitutionality of Donald Trump’s call for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States“–a ban that would also apply to Muslim U.S. citizens living abroad, according to a Trump spokesman. (Update: Trump contradicted his spokesman during an appearance on Good Morning America today. “If a person is a Muslim and goes overseas and come back, they can come back. They are a citizen, that is different,” Trump said.)
“I disagree with that proposal. I like Donald Trump,” Cruz said at a press conference when asked about Trump’s proposed ban. When a reporter specifically asked Cruz–a Harvard-trained lawyer and former solicitor general of Texas–about the constitutionality of Trump’s proposal, Cruz declined to express an opinion. “I am focused on my policies and the solutions that I am proposing to the real problems of this country,” Cruz replied. “And I recognize that a great many folks in the media would prefer that anyone running for president engage as an ongoing theater critic criticizing the proposals of others. I do not agree with his proposal.”
Cruz had no words of criticism for Trump or his proposal and went on to praise the real estate tycoon for drawing attention to the issue of border security. “Certainly in the media there has been no shortage of criticism for Donald Trump. I do not believe the world needs my voice added that chorus of critics. And listen, I commend Donald Trump for standing up and focusing America’s attention on the need to secure our borders. Border security is national security,” Cruz said.
