The Patriot Post® · Cruz Hits Trump Over Reagan Claim

By Publius ·
https://patriotpost.us/articles/40156-cruz-hits-trump-over-reagan-claim-2016-01-20

Ted Cruz fired a shot at Donald Trump as the battle between the two heats up: “Donald did an interview where he described he thinks he’s bigger than Ronald Reagan. I think the American people will make that determination. I would note that Ronald Reagan spent decades as a principled conservative; spent decades traveling the country sharing his conservative free market views [and] defending the Constitution. Ronald Reagan did not spend the first 60 years of his life supporting Democratic politicians advocating for big government politics. Supporting things like the big bank bailout. Supporting things like expanding ObamaCare to turn it into socialized medicine. That’s not what Ronald Reagan did. Ronald Reagan was a voice of consistency. And I’m pretty sure that Ronald Reagan didn’t write checks and support Democratic politicians like Andrew Cuomo, like Anthony Weiner, like Hillary Clinton. I’m pretty sure Ronald Reagan didn’t write a huge check to Rahm Emanuel in December of 2010. After, by the way, the big Tea Party wave, after the 2010 elections, I’m pretty sure Ronald Reagan didn’t give Rahm Emanuel a big check. I understand every Republican candidate tries to compare himself to Reagan. But at the end of the day the American people are going to assess who is telling the truth. Who has, in fact, been a consistent conservative? Not has adopted conservative language on the campaign trail, but who has walked the walk. Who has stood for these principles over and over again. You know where they stand yesterday, today and tomorrow.”

Of course, Reagan was a Democrat for much of his early life, famously saying, “I didn’t leave the Democratic party, the Democratic Party left me.” Reagan’s political career, however, was spent as the north star of the conservative revolution.