Posted on 12/19/2015 6:52:57 PM PST by Isara
DAPHNE, Ala.- After several days of the most intense scrutiny he's faced as a presidential candidate, Ted Cruz took the stage here on Saturday and delivered a fiery performance to a crowd of more than 1,300 cheering fans, aiming to put a turbulent week behind him.
He roared threats to ISIL. He cracked jokes with the talkative audience members. And he received a big assist from Jeff Sessions, among the party's staunchest immigration hardliners and, the 2016 contender suggested, a possible secretary of homeland security in a Cruz administration.
"One of the things you've been hearing about is criticism of Ted and what he did with regard to the massive immigration bill they tried to ram through in 2013," Sessions told one of the most raucous crowds that has assembled for Cruz to date. "Let me tell you, I was there every step of the way. Ted Cruz was on my side, he fought this legislation all the way through."
Cruz entered Alabama in some ways on his back foot, having spent the week explaining why he said during Tuesday's debate that he "never" supported legalization of undocumented immigrants, despite language he used during the 2013 immigration reform debate in Congress that indicated otherwise. The usually unflappable Cruz, prone to delivering eloquent, if lengthy, soliloquies in interviews, stumbled in several major national appearances this week, particularly on Fox News, when pressed on the subject. Marco Rubio was part of the group that worked on immigration reform, and his camp has been pushing the narrative the Cruz is inconsistent on the issue.
On Saturday, Cruz sought to show he was back in command.
"We are going to deport criminal illegal aliens, we are going to pass Kate's Law [requiring mandatory minimum sentencing for illegal immigrants who are deported and then return], we are going to end welfare benefits for those here illegally," he said, bringing many in the audience gathered here at a civic center to their feet. "For anyone who wonders, 'Can we really secure the border?' I've got three words for you: Secretary Jeff Sessions! You want to talk about a homeland security secretary who would go down and build the wall himself!"
His appearance here, in the state's Gulf region, came as part of his 12-cities-in-12-days swing through many of the states that vote on March 1, a day that the Cruz campaign sees as its firewall. Cruz is widely regarded as the most deeply organized candidate in the South, a region that will have outsize influence in 2016, as many of the states vote on the same day. This is his second major swing through the region this year. In the summer, he did a weeklong bus trip through the South before he turned his attention more fully to Iowa, a state where he is now the poll leader.
"The presidential nominee of the Republican Party must come through the South, must step into one of the most conservative states, and that is the heartbeat of conservatism-Alabama!" said Alabama GOP Chair Terry Lathan as she warmed up the crowd. "We are no longer-no longer!-a fly-over state. We are a fly-in state."
And in Alabama, the second-most conservative state in the country, according to Gallup, Cruz largely delivered the same red meat-packed stump speech he gives elsewhere, though the lively crowd tended to chime in more, boosting him with applause, "amens" and sometimes more colorful commentary.
When Cruz began to say what he would do on his first day in office, a man chimed in, "Put Hillary in jail?"
"She may already be there," shot back Cruz, clad in a white button-down shirt, sleeves rolled up, and blue jeans. "But if so, I'll be sure to bake her a cake and send it to her."
But his comments about immigration, which earned the loudest cheers of the event, were more notable Saturday than they are in a typical stump speech, given the scrutiny he has faced nationally on that issue.
Cruz's explanation of his rhetoric on legalization is that in 2013, he offered an amendment designed to kill the comprehensive immigration reform proposal that other senators, including Rubio, were working on, and stopping the pathway to citizenship provided in the measure was his primary focus.
The intent to ultimately stop the bill has been corroborated by Cruz's friends and foes alike in the Senate, from Sessions to Chuck Schumer, the New York Democrat Cruz keeps trying to tie to Rubio. But Cruz, a self-styled outsider candidate, has still found himself having to explain complicated procedural maneuvers, under fire from the Rubio campaign, the center-right press and the mainstream media over seemingly contradictory rhetoric.
That comes even as right-wing talk radio has rallied to his side and Rubio has faced his own criticism over his more moderate record on the issue, which is widely seen as a vulnerability for him in the GOP primary.
But at the rally, the nuances of the Cruz-Rubio debate so far didn't seem to matter.
"I think it's a press-driven fight," said Susan Davis, 67, a retired professor who is deciding between Cruz and Rubio. She said she is leaning toward Rubio despite her misgivings about both candidates' positions on immigration, which she described as "questionable."
Rubio and Cruz have been openly sparring for weeks, with Cruz painting Rubio's efforts on immigration as "amnesty"-a toxic word in a GOP primary, but particularly so here in the deep South. Rubio's team this week has ratcheted up efforts to portray Cruz as inconsistent, particularly on his immigration rhetoric. And a New York Times story out Friday showed that when Cruz was a domestic policy adviser on George W. Bush's presidential campaign, he offered recommendations that were far more conciliatory on the issue than the hard-right positions Cruz espouses now.
If the Rubio campaign can get that narrative to stick, it could be particularly damaging for Cruz, who is running as a "consistent conservative" and routinely dismisses "campaign conservatives" who say one thing on the campaign trail and do another in Washington.
But people inclined to support Cruz so far aren't swayed, according to several interviews at the rally.
"[Rubio is] trying to deflect heat that he deserves, because Rubio has a history as an open borders guy, with the Gang of Eight," said Joe Milam, a 48-year-old business developer. "He's trying to call out his biggest competitor, next to Trump. I don't buy it."
A GOP operative aiding a rival campaign, who is familiar with the South and is no fan of Cruz, was also skeptical of efforts to muddle Cruz's immigration record.
"My gut is, people see Ted Cruz as so far to the right, a really far-right conservative guy, and people see Rubio as conservative but a little more mainstream, more moderate, so when this immigration thing is thrown at both of them, it's much more likely to stick to Rubio than to Cruz," said this source. "Cruz had an awful interview with [Fox News's] Bret Baier, but he's going to fix that."
Cruz, for his part, didn't let questions about his consistency stop him from delivering a favorite stump speech line: The "single biggest difference" between himself and his competitors on the debate stage, he said, is, "with me, when I tell you I'm going to do something, I'm going to do exactly what I said I'm going to do."
And, as always, the crowd roared.
Ted is the man.
Go Cruz go!
I’m still miffed that when he came to my neck of the woods months ago, it was affiliated with a Republican fund raiser. Needless to say, I didn’t attend, though invited. Love Ted, Despise the Pubs. I’m hopeful he makes it back this way again some day, without Republican strings attached. I didn’t see in this piece if he was on his own?
“He roared threats to ISIL.”
Doubt he called it ISIL.
Politico says...”He roared threats to ISIL”
I highly doubt that Ted referred to ISIS as ISIL
What a bunch of gay freakin fags at Politico
Yes I read that first paragraph as you did, Ted would never say ISIL...made my blood boil and I posted my comment before I read any further
I see you said the same thing basically. Just shows how in the tank Politico is for Obama... Nobody would utter the phrase ISIL unless they were in the tank for Obama
He didn’t. I was there.
No word on what Ted plans for the millions of illegal aliens already here who aren't criminals, well, other than supposedly ending welfare benefits (unlikely with courts involved).
In other words, some form of legal status for them if they are not deported.
What Ted did or didn't say or do two years ago is really irrelevant other than to respond to Rubio. What matters is what he's said this year and particularly since he announced his candidacy. And he has never proposed anything for the millions of non-criminal illegal aliens other than some form of legal status, or he has remained silent on this issue.
I went to his rally on Friday in Kennesaw, Georgia and I got to shake his hand. It was really a cool rally. Herman Cain was there as well. If you ever get the chance, you should really go. :)
Thank you for attending. I wanted to go.
As candidates drop out Cruz will rise rapidly, since he is the favorite when combining first and second choices.
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