... inside a conference room Wednesday in a Madison Avenue office, with about 70 people pressed around a table, Mr. Cruz gave his assessment of the race, lumping Mr. Trump with another candidate whose supporters the Texas senator hopes to poach, Ben Carson.
...“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.”
On the audio, after he described the “challenging question” facing Mr. Trump and Mr. Carson, Mr. Cruz went on to explain: “So my approach, much to the frustration of the media, has been to bear hug both of them, and smother them with love.”
He added: “People run as who they are. I believe gravity will bring both of those campaigns down” and “the lion’s share of their supporters come to us.”
You can listen to the four minutes and fifty-eight seconds of secretly recorded audio here,and read the New York Times story here.
Allahpundit at Hot Air gives this analysis:
To any other candidate, it would be obvious that Cruz’s friendliness was purely mercenary. (A RINO scourge like Cruz must detest Trump’s leftward tendencies in private.) To an ego like Trump’s, though, it may be genuinely wounding that Cruz, despite insisting here that he “likes and respects” Trump, is essentially playing him for votes.
I don’t think this is war for the simple reason that Cruz won’t respond. If anything, Cruz being Cruz, he’ll issue a quasi-apology saying he regrets that his “friend” Donald was offended or whatever. Press play below and listen to the man yourself. The name of the game is “bear-hugging” and there’s no reason for that not to continue unless Cruz falls behind again in Iowa and starts running out of time before the caucuses. In fact, with Christie making his move in New Hampshire, I’d say that Cruz has more reason than ever to lie low against Trump right now. Christie’s going to start throwing punches at Trump to try to close the gap in NH and some of those punches may help weaken Trump in Iowa. Why should Cruz anger Trump fans by taking him on when Christie will soon be doing his dirty work for him?
Cruz has already started to grovel. He tweeted out today: The Establishment's only hope: Trump & me in a cage match.
Sorry to disappoint -- @realDonaldTrump is terrific. #DealWithIt
10:03 AM - 11 Dec 2015
That was in response to tweets by Donald Trump early this morning in which Trump tweeted out, "Attack me to my face, not in private to your “bosses”
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