Texas Sen. Ted Cruz escalated his attacks on Donald Trump’s personal history on Friday, fearing that should he not be able to stop Trump’s “enormous momentum,” the real-estate mogul could very well be “unstoppable.”
“Super Tuesday, one of two things is going to happen. Right now, Donald Trump has enormous momentum. He’s won three out of four states,” Cruz told a Christian broadcasting conference here. “If he continues with that momentum and powers through and wins everywhere on Super Tuesday, he could easily be unstoppable. And I think that would be a grave mistake both for the Republican Party and for the country.”
Friday’s comments mirror those Cruz made just before the Iowa caucuses, when the Texas senator said Trump may be on an “unstoppable” path if he won that state’s contests. Trump then lost to Cruz.
Now, Cruz is again hoping for a come-from-behind victory. His remarks, coming a weekend before the day that Cruz himself has said is crucial to his chances for capturing the GOP nomination, is the latest language that tries to make Super Tuesday a campaign-defining day that either boosts Cruz or sends Trump to the Republican convention.
And the candidate on Friday correspondingly ratcheted up his attacks on the New Yorker’s biography and business dealings, a new line of offense for the Texas senator who has spent weeks trying to expose Trump as a phony conservative.
Just as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio did Thursday night in CNN’s Republican debate, Cruz went after Trump’s hiring practices, saying it is impossible for Trump not to be able to find Americans to work at his properties.
“That is an astonishing statement to the millions of Americans who have worked as waiters. Go down to a T.G.I. Friday’s,” Cruz told reporters here. “And by the way, this isn’t just a waiter anywhere. This is a waiter at a really chichi hotel in Palm Beach. Donald Trump is really maintaining there are no Americans he could find willing to be waiters and waitresses?”
Cruz went after Trump’s personal character, poking at his claim from last summer that he has never asked for forgiveness from God.
“If someone is actually pro-life today,” he told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a live interview, “would you perhaps ask God for forgiveness for spending 60 years of his life advocating for partial-birth abortion?”
He also went after Trump’s greed.
“His actions demonstrate that the only thing he’s cared about is putting money in his bank account,” he told Hannity.
And he even went after Trump’s hair. Asked if he would launch an investigation into Trump’s famous mane, Cruz demurred.
“There are some things that are really just too big to uncover,” Cruz said.