MSNBC “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough, a former Republican congressman, said Sen. Ted Cruz demonstrated “tone deafness” and “stupidity” in his recent attack on his rival for the GOP presidential nomination, Donald Trump.
On his show Thursday, Scarborough referred to a growing feud between Cruz and Trump, after Trump started questioning whether Cruz, who was born in Canada, is eligible for the presidency. Cruz responded by saying Trump represents “New York values.”
“Ted Cruz, again, being a hypocrite here by acting like he’s some poor country lawyer that just fell off a turnip truck,” Scarborough said, noting that Cruz is Ivy-league educated and that his wife worked for Goldman Sachs. “Doesn’t seem like a smart line of attack.”
Trump has responded to Cruz’s attack on “New York values” by tying it to 9/11, conjuring up images of the World Trade Center and how the city rebounded after the attack.
“I think overlooked with all the bluster and the show of Trump is how good he is,” said Willie Geist, a co-host of NBC’s “Today.” “That is political skill on display, and I’m not here to defend Donald Trump and I don’t agree with a lot of what he says but he’s good at this.”
“I’m really surprised by the tone-deafness and really the, I’m just going to say it, stupidity of Ted Cruz attacking a city that’s been on the front line of terror since 2001,” said Scarborough.
Bloomberg Politics Editor Mark Halperin agreed. “This may not be the best fight for Ted Cruz to pick,” he said. “Look, there’s a reality here. Donald Trump for decades has been tested in the national spotlight. In this campaign, he has gotten a ton of scrutiny and he knows how to handle himself and he has, as we’ve discussed, a Teflon that goes beyond Reagan’s in terms of being able to survive flaps. Ted Cruz has not gotten any of that.”
Cruz and Trump had previously enjoyed an exceedingly cordial relationship on the campaign trail. But that changed in recent weeks as the all-important Iowa caucus draws nearer.
