Ted Cruz is looking to turn the controversy over undisclosed loans he received into a campaign windfall.
“I told you it was going to happen, and last night it did,” the presidential candidate wrote to supporters on Thursday, a day after The New York Times reported that Cruz failed to declare large loans he received during a previous Senate campaign. “Last night The New York Times wrote a disgraceful story — placing it on their front page above the fold — in a shameful attempt to not only affect tonight’s debate but also change the ultimate course of the 2016 election.”
The Times reported that Cruz did not report to the Federal Election Commission two personal loans from Citibank and Goldman Sachs, where his wife works, during his come-from-behind win in the 2012 Texas Republican primary. And as he did after The Washington Post published a cartoon featuring his daughters that he found repugnant, Cruz quickly parlayed the Times story into an opportunity.
“Just before the most important presidential debate of the election — and with less than 18 days until the first votes are counted in Iowa — The New York Times made the strategic decision to dictate the outcome of this election by launching an all-out assault on Heidi and me,” he wrote supporters in the email, with the subject line “Debate bombshell.” “This could prove to be the most important day of the campaign, and I need you by my side.”
Cruz has been one of the most successful fundraisers in the 2016 race, thanks in part to his large low-dollar fundraising lists.
“You and I have already faced brutal attacks since I announced my campaign, some from Hillary and some from my opponents, but every time we have gotten stronger,” he writes. “Now the liberal, media elite are truly desperate to discredit and destroy me — by any means necessary. Will you make an emergency donation?”
