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Ted Cruz to Newsmax: GOP Will Lose with 'Establishment Candidate'
Wednesday, April 22, 2015 03:26 PM
By: Sean Piccoli
Republicans will lose the 2016 Presidential election if they nominate an establishment candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz told Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
During a candid and wide-ranging interview at Newsmax’s headquarters, Cruz predicted that a candidate in the mold of Mitt Romney or John McCain would guarantee that Hillary Clinton moves into the White House.
"It will in effect be a third term for Barack Obama," the Texas Republican said in an exclusive interview with "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner.
Cruz, who in March became the first major Republican to announce his candidacy for the Republican Presidential nomination, said as president he would put an end to the domestic and foreign policies of President Barack Obama, both of which he said have been a "disaster." . . .
As a primary candidate, he said, he is on "a very short list" of contenders who have fought for core conservative values on every critical policy front, from efforts to repeal Obamacare to confronting the mullahs of Iran.
Cruz joined the race in March, becoming the first major political figure on the ballot in what is expected to be a heavily populated GOP field. He told "MidPoint" the decision to run as a first-term U.S. senator with just over two years in office followed months of intensive thought and prayer alongside his wife, Heidi.
Cruz said he sized up likely primary rivals including the clear establishment favorite, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and felt none of the leading names would appeal to a conservative Republican base that is increasingly demoralized by the choices on offer and is sitting out national elections.
"I don't see a whole lot of candidates who are likely to mobilize or energize the millions of conservatives who are staying home," said Cruz. "And if we don't bring those voters back, we lose."
Cruz praised Dole, McCain and Romney as honorable people and devoted public servants, but said the country in 2016 is "in crisis" and needs a president who can re-connect America with its political identity as a center-right nation.
Cruz said the left and its allies in the news media routinely try to obscure that truth, and will paint any Republican presidential nominee as "extreme" regardless of beliefs.
He paraphrased a line from the 1995 movie, "The Usual Suspects," in which Kevin Spacey's character says, "The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist."
"And I suggest there's a corollary that the greatest trick the left ever played was to convince conservatives that America doesn't share our values," said Cruz. "America is fundamentally a center right country and if you look at the values I'm running on — live within your means, don't bankrupt our kids and grandkids, follow the Constitution — those are basic, common sense. It's only in Washington, D.C. that those are considered radical or extreme."
"We could go to any state in the union, we could go to the bluest state in the union, get a room of 100 people, Republicans, Democrats, independents, Libertarians, and most of them would agree with those common sense propositions," he said. "That's what we've got to get back to, because it's what career politicians in Washington have forgotten is a basic value America was founded on."
Cruz said a Republican win in 2016 is also critical for changing course.
He said the Obama foreign policy, from Russia to the Middle East, has proven that "weakness is provocative."
Domestically, "The Obama economy is a disaster," he said.
The president's health care overhaul has helped to push the U.S. labor force participation rate down to lows not seen since the 1970s, said Cruz, as the Affordable Care Act's mandates push more workers from full-time into part-time work.
"It's not working," he said, "and people are ready to turn the page."
