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Cruz Stands Firm On Controversial Terrorism Remarks At Pewaukee Event

GOP Presidential Candidate Calls For Kasich To Drop Out Of Race

By
AP Photo/Morry Gash

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz defended his call for more police monitoring of Muslim neighborhoods in the U.S. during a campaign stop in Pewaukee on Wednesday night.

President Barack Obama and other Democrats criticized the U.S. senator from Texas for remarks that he made following this week’s deadly bombings in Belgium by members of the Islamic State group.

But Cruz said he stands by his words.

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”Well, I have to say I’m so sorry to be dismaying Barack Obama,” he said, jokingly. “Yesterday and today, I was attacked by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and New York’s Mayor Bill DeBlasio, which suggests maybe I’m doing something right.”

Islamic leaders are also criticizing Cruz, saying his proposal would wrongly target law-abiding Muslims.

Cruz also warned GOP voters against nominating Republican front-runner Donald Trump. He said many polls show the New York businessman would lose to Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton this fall.

“If we nominate Donald Trump, it is a disaster. It elects Hillary Clinton. We lose the Supreme Court for a generation. We lose the Bill of Rights,” he said.

Cruz said a poll this week shows him doing better against Clinton, but not as well as Ohio Gov. John Kasich would. Cruz is urging Kasich to drop out of the presidential contest.

But campaigning in Wauwatosa on Wednesday, Kasich said he’s staying in the race.

Cruz had been invited to speak by conservative Milwaukee talk radio show host Charlie Sykes, who himself has been a vocal critic of Trump’s campaign.

The Texas senator is scheduled to campaign Thursday in Dane County and in Janesville, ahead of Wisconsin’s presidential primary on April 5.