[UPDATED WITH AUDIO] — CRUZ HITS TRUMP!! Questions his judgement at private fundraiser

Oh boy here we go. The Cruz Missile pointed its ICBMS at the Donald finally, after months of well-mannered agreement, when he questioned Trump’s judgement at a private fundraiser, according to a witness.

From the New York Times:

Senator Ted Cruz raised questions on Wednesday at a private fund-raiser about whether Donald J. Trump, his bombastic rival for the Republican presidential nomination, has the “judgment” to be president and mused about “strength,” according to two people who attended the event in Manhattan.

…inside a conference room in a Madison Avenue office, with about 70 people pressed around a table, Mr. Cruz gave a candid assessment of the race, lumping Mr. Trump with another candidate whose supporters the Texas senator hopes to poach, Ben Carson, according to two people present for the remarks.

“Both of them I like and respect,” said Mr. Cruz, according to one attendee, who requested anonymity to describe what happened at a private event. “I don’t believe either one of them is going to be our president.”

Mr. Cruz described both campaigns as having a “natural arch” with gravity “pulling them down” now. Mr. Carson’s descent, he added, has been faster.

But he added, according to a second attendee, “You look at Paris, you look at San Bernardino, it’s given a seriousness to this race, that people are looking for: Who is prepared to be a commander in chief? Who understands the threats we face?”

He went on: “Who am I comfortable having their finger on the button? Now that’s a question of strength, but it’s also a question of judgment. And I think that is a question that is a challenging question for both of them.”

But, it may be that this was unintentional, as Cruz refuses to comment on the report:

I doubt that’ll mean much for el Trumpo!! The Donald has been saying for about a month now that he’s not gonna hit Cruz until he hits first, but he warned that he would go on full on attack once he did. I think we should pop some popcorn and prepare for fireworks…

 
UPDATE (TRS): Cruz responds, calling the NY Times story ‘misleading‘:

HOUSTON, Texas – Today, Presidential candidate Ted Cruz responded to a misleading story in the New York Times claiming Cruz criticized Donald Trump at an event last night:

“In the course of a Presidential election, the voters are going to make a decision about every candidate. And ultimately the decision is, who has the right judgment and the right experience to serve as Commander in Chief? Every one of us who is running is being assessed by the voters under that metric, and that is exactly why we have a democratic election to make that determination.”

I’ll note that while he calls the story misleading, he doesn’t say how it’s misleading. Sounds like he wanted to just clarify his remarks.

 
UPDATE 2 (TRS): Here’s the audio someone recorded of Cruz that the NY Times go their hands on. It does indeed back up what the NY Times printed.


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