Ted Cruz reiterated his criticism of Donald Trump’s “New York values” Saturday, releasing a video showing Trump strongly supporting abortion rights while crediting his New York roots for those beliefs.
The one minute video shows a cut 1999 “Meet the Press” interview of Trump conducted by the late Tim Russert.
“Look, I’m very pro-choice,” Trump says, when asked about proposals to ban late-term abortions. “Again, it may be a little bit of my New York background.”
On gay marriage, Trump said: “It’s something I haven’t given lots of thought to. I live in New York City, there’s a tremendous movement to allow gay marriage. It’s just something to premature for me to comment on.”
On gays serving in the military, Trump said: “It’s not something that would disturb me. I mean, hey, I’ve lived in New York City and Manhattan all my life.”
“My views are a little bit different than if I lived in Iowa, perhaps,” Trump said.
Trump and Cruz are neck-and-neck in most Iowa polls, though Cruz’s appears to hold a slight advantage, and reportedly has a superior voter turnout operation.
The video release in this form comes after Cruz faulted Trump for holding “New York values” during Thursday’s Republican debate in South Carolina. Trump responded by citing New York’s response to the Sept. 11 terror attack, putting Cruz on the defensive.
Cruz’s remark drew condemnation from New Yorkers who launched a #NewYorkvalues hashtag.
At the time of the Russert interview, Trump was flirting with a presidential bid. He was considering running for the nomination of the Reform Party, launched by 1992 and 1996 presidential candidiate Ross Perot, but dropped out the race in February 2000.
Trump previously considered running for president in 1988 as a Republican, but did not. The 2000 Reform Party nomination went to Pat Buchanan, a populist former Nixon aide and journalist who opposes abortion and gay marriage.
The Cruz video is titled, “Donald Trump on New York Values – In His Own Words.”
