Ted Cruz in 2016 FactCheck


On Free Trade: I always opposed TPP, but I supported TPA

Q: You were a supporter of the Pacific trade deal, but you changed your position.

CRUZ: Actually that's incorrect. There are two different agreements. There's TPA and TPP. I opposed TPP and have always opposed TPP, which is what you asked about. Free trade, when we open up foreign markets, helps Americans. But we're getting killed in international trade right now.We're driving jobs overseas.

FACTCHECK: No one explained the acronyms, so we looked them up. According to Mother Jones magazine:

TPP = Trans Pacific Partnership, a trade treaty between the US and a bunch of other countries around the Pacific Rim. It's been under negotiation for years.

TPA = Trade Promotion Authority, aka "fast track." This comes before the TPP vote, and guarantees that the treaty text will be submitted to Congress for an up-or-down vote with no amendments allowed. Without it, the treaty is dead, since other countries won't allow the US to unilaterally makes changes.

Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on 2016 GOP primary debate in Miami Mar 11, 2016

On Principles & Values: FactCheck: Yes, Cruz speaks Spanish & understands Univision

Marco Rubio accused Ted Cruz of being unable to understand Univision (a Spanish-language TV station); Cruz demonstrated Rubio wrong by responding in Spanish:Both Senators accused each other of lying; we won't comment on the other accusations, but Rubio was clearly incorrect in his assertion that Cruz speaks no Spanish.
Source: OnTheIssues FactCheck on 2016 CBS Republican debate in S.C. Feb 14, 2016

On Principles & Values: FactCheck: McCain was born in US territory, not Panama

Ted Cruz asserted, "If a soldier has a child abroad, that child is a natural-born citizen. That's why John McCain, even though he was born in Panama, was eligible to run for president."

We checked the facts and Ted Cruz is wrong--McCain was NOT born in Panama, but in the Panama Canal Zone, which at that time was a US. territory. Cruz claims, falsely, that McCain was the child of soldiers abroad--that would have been the case if McCain's parents had crossed the border to the country of Panama, but they chose to stay in U.S. territory.

On the constitutional term "natural-born citizen", OnTheIssues follows the "stamp rule": What stamp would one use at the place one was born? McCain's parents would have used US stamps in the Canal Zone, so McCain is eligible. Barry Goldwater was similarly questioned in 1964 because he was born in Arizona territory before it became a state--he also passes the "stamp rule." George Romney, born to US parents in Mexico, does not pass the "stamp rule"--nor does Cruz!

Source: OnTheIssues FactChecking on Fox Business 2016 GOP debate Jan 15, 2016

The above quotations are from Fact-checking on 2016 presidential, gubernatorial, and Senate campaigns.
Click here for other excerpts from Fact-checking on 2016 presidential, gubernatorial, and Senate campaigns.
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Page last updated: Dec 08, 2018