Ted Cruz is a “RINO,” according to former Republican senator and presidential nominee Bob Dole.
“He’s a RINO — he’s a Republican in name only,” Dole said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday, just one day before the Iowa caucuses that Dole won twice.
Cruz’s “far, far right” brand of conservatism, Dole said, is out of step with Republicans, and with GOP voters in Iowa in particular.
“I don’t really believe the people in Iowa are extreme conservatives. They’re Grassley conservatives, they’re Ernst conservatives, they’re Gov. Branstad conservatives,” Dole said, referring to Iowa’s two Republican senators and Republican governor.
Dole, a former Senate majority leader, twice won the Iowa caucuses, where his representation of nearby farm state Kansas boosted his candidacy.
If Cruz won the GOP nomination, Dole warned, Republicans would suffer “wholesale” losses in Congress and in governors’ offices.
Dole has endorsed former Florida governor Jeb Bush for president. But if forced to choose between Cruz and Donald Trump, he would vote for the New York billionaire, he said.
Trump, he explained, is a “negotiator” who has demonstrated an ability to work with both Republicans and Democrats in his business career.
“More than I can say for Ted Cruz, who’s the Lone Ranger in the Senate — his way or the highway, or shut down the government,” he added.
During the interview, the 92 year-old Kansan, who spent 28 years in the Senate, criticized Cruz’s Senate record at every opportunity.
“No one likes him in the Senate,” Doles said. “All he’s done is shut down the government twice and cost millions of dollars and put a lot of federal workers out of work for days.”
