Ted Cruz Was Talking About Building a Wall Before Trump Even Announced His Candidacy
In tonight’s debate, Ted Cruz summarized his immigration plan, and began it by saying: “We’re going to build a wall.” Donald Trump got some laffs by lifting up his arms as if to say: “Like I’ve been saying.”
But Ted Cruz talked about building a wall before Donald Trump even announced his candidacy.
On March 27, 2015, Shikha Dalmia from Reason.com wrote in The Week that Ted Cruz wanted to build a wall on the border:
Cruz wants to establish “100 percent operational control” of America’s southern border by completing a double-layer fence on the entire 2,000 miles, tripling the size of the border patrol, and quadrupling the number of helicopters and cameras.
Dalmia was critical of Cruz:
What’s ironic about Cruz’s crusade to build a wall between two free — and friendly — people, divert billions of taxpayer dollars to militarize the border, and abrogate the civil rights of Americans is that he is doing so while vowing to “stand for liberty.”
But the thing to note about the story was the date: March 27, 2015.
Trump didn’t even announce his run until nearly three months later, on June 16, 2015.
Trump spent a lot of time in recent weeks whining that Cruz stole his “build a wall” idea. But, aside from the fact that people have talked about building a wall forever, the fact remains: Ted Cruz was talking about it weeks before Donald Trump announced his presidential run.
So there.
Ding.
Patterico (86c8ed) — 2/6/2016 @ 10:30 pmCruz didn’t say WALL in March, 2015. He said FENCE.
Other people did say wall before Trump. But these were mostly, or entirely, people against it.
Notice here, it is Shikha Dalmia who says WALL, not Cruz. Trump was maybe the first to be pro-WALL.
Sammy Finkelman (dbec95) — 2/6/2016 @ 10:40 pmI also remember that there was some talk of the illegal immigration problem in the 2012 GOP debates. It came to nothing mainly because Obama was re-elected. Pretty sure Trump was no where to be found.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/6/2016 @ 10:52 pmTed Cruz was talking about building a wall… and nobody was paying him the slightest bit of attention. It was Trump who brought the issue to the forefront.
Boris (8fca07) — 2/7/2016 @ 3:17 amTALK. And that’s all it WOULD be, if not for Trump.
Kauf Buch (713141) — 2/7/2016 @ 3:17 amTalk, talk, talk.
Cruz has proven himself to be just another skeezy politician…
…with a dollop of “Travelling Tent Revival Preacher” on the side.
Get off your sister kauf butch.
mg (31009b) — 2/7/2016 @ 3:19 amhttp://neoneocon.com/2016/01/26/2011-ted-cruz-on-the-wall-and-amnesty/
I know. I know. I’m just a fanboi drinking the koolaid. Smoking the pot. There I was, actually paying attention to what the guy I voted for to be my Senator was actually saying.
When I could have ignored all that. AND MORE!!!
And been a Trump fan.
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 4:31 amMcCain was talking about building a wall eight years ago.
nk (9faaca) — 2/7/2016 @ 4:34 amAdvantage: John McCain.
Cruz might mean it. Trump might mean it now and want a wall along the Atlantic shore to keep out the Danes tomorrow.
Don’t get me started on McCain, nk.
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 4:45 amHere is your Ministry of Truth at play:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-06/why-bulls-will-get-slaughtered
For instance, the customary 600K January loss in holiday retail jobs becomes for 2016 a 60K gain.
Inventories to sales ratios at record highs and business is hiring whereas anecdotally everyone is closing shop.
Go figure and tell me this will change with a titular head-of-state. You people are a self-referential joke.
DNF (755a85) — 2/7/2016 @ 4:46 amYou go right ahead and pile on that dang senator if you want, Steve. It’s been the GOP BSers like him that made people think they have nowhere to go to except Trump.
nk (9faaca) — 2/7/2016 @ 4:54 am9. Daily income tax withholding direct from the Treasury:
A negative 4.5% growth rate is a broadjump into depression territory.
DNF (755a85) — 2/7/2016 @ 5:20 amTO “mg”
“get off my sister”…?!?
Well, well, well…there’s your pious, refined Cruz supporter spirit for you!
At least “nk” gets it:
even pols like Juan McStain TALKED about “that danged” WALL…
…and look where we are.
TRUMP 2016
Kauf Buch (713141) — 2/7/2016 @ 5:20 amFew people will deny thatTrump is tapping into the frustrations of a great many Americans. We question whether he is the solution.
nk (9faaca) — 2/7/2016 @ 5:32 amRemember the Romney candidacy? Barack Obama talked, or more properly mentioned terrorism once in passing during a speech in the White House Rose Garden. Which was enough of a fig leaf for debate moderator Candy Crawley to reject Romney’s accurate accusation the Obama Administration was lying about the Benghazi attack.
Talking about major issues is the first step in doing something. But it’s only a first step. Without follow up it’s just talk – which is better than nothing – but talk by itself is an inadequate basis for a claim of prior commitment.
ropelight (ec3b5e) — 2/7/2016 @ 5:43 amBut the thing about Cruz is that he has done what he said he would do,
MD not exactly in Philly (deca84) — 2/7/2016 @ 6:07 amWhich others say is not a good thing
Because when you do what the voters want,
You can’t get along with the DC gang
As if that is a bug (which I guess it would be for others, but for Cruz it is the feature)
Truth be told, the only thing out of the whole debate that made me think that the GOP stll has a redeeming virtue, was Rubio’s answer on abortion. The worst part was the responses to the stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, drafting women proposal. Not one of those homos up there could say “I can think of better things we can do with our women than to send them out to get shot and blown up”?
nk (9faaca) — 2/7/2016 @ 6:08 amAgain, neither Trump nor Cruz can get to 60.8% of the primary vote and march unmolested to the nomination.
Either they unite or all this verbiage pro and con is mindless chatter.
DNF (755a85) — 2/7/2016 @ 6:23 amApropos of nothing, I’ve been reading up on Yamamoto Isaroku. And the more I learn about him, the more I like him. Yamamoto was a flawed human being. And the first one to admit that, would have been Yamamoto. During his sojourns to the US he had come to admire Abraham Lincoln. Who was himself flawed. Naturally, as Yamamoto put it, because a man of action will rely on himself and not on the gods. So how can he avoid straying from time to time.
Dammit. I like the guy.
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 6:24 amIsoroku
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 6:29 amThen why are women in the military at all?
Rev. Hoagie™ (f4eb27) — 2/7/2016 @ 6:32 am17. Bet ‘Cuda knows what ye illuminati so obviously do not.
DNF (755a85) — 2/7/2016 @ 6:33 amThey proved themseves since the Crmean War in non-combat roles. This women in combat is a new thing from people who think the military’s function is a social laboratory and not the defense of our country.
nk (9faaca) — 2/7/2016 @ 6:39 am22. It’s not that women have been demoted as much as the mens deprecated.
DNF (755a85) — 2/7/2016 @ 6:43 amAlrighty, then, nk.
I’m at a loss.
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 6:44 amLast week we inked in Crossfit totals–backsquat, dead lift, shoulder press–to my lasting soreness.
At sixty three I was only stronger than women 120 lbs. and under but a number of our guys doubled the strongest lady.
DNF (755a85) — 2/7/2016 @ 6:52 am23. That too. But I don’t think war is so easy that even the girls could do it. Florence Nightingale is one thing and Audie Murphy another.
nk (9faaca) — 2/7/2016 @ 6:53 amIt’s a hard rain gonna fall.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/7/2016 @ 6:57 amtry to be success
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/7/2016 @ 7:01 amtwenty years of schoolin’ and
you’re put on day shift
broken rules and schools
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/7/2016 @ 7:07 amwith Trump they must be jokin’
ev’rything’s broken
better look out kids
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/7/2016 @ 7:10 amsumpin’ you did God knows when
doin’ It again
future’s uncertain
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/7/2016 @ 7:15 ama zombie apocalypse
or serve somebody?
29. Expecting a groundswell to induce government to reform is faith in unicorns and pixie dust.
The majors are entrenched beyond our capacity to threaten with a very occasional victory, a la Cantor.
Our only opportunity is death, famine and destruction and a victory not of our making.
DNF (755a85) — 2/7/2016 @ 7:19 amand how does it feel
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/7/2016 @ 7:22 amon yer own complete unknown
like a strolling bone
Vivarae!
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 7:23 amI have looked Death in teh face and it was Minnesota.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/7/2016 @ 7:30 am“Hey wait everybody, I had that bad idea first”
-Ted Cruz
Good job
Gil (4e1585) — 2/7/2016 @ 7:52 amYou walk into the room with your Johnson in your hand
You see somebody naked and you say, “Who is that man?”
You fight teh feelin’ but you don’t understand
Just what it is that’s makin’ feel you feel so ill
Because something is happening here but you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mr. Gil?
You raise up your head and you ask, “Is this what it is?”
And somebody points to him and says, “It’s his”
And you say, “What’s his?” and somebody else says, “Well, it’s jiz.”
And you say, “Oh my Gaia, am I really sucking still?”
But something is happening and you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mr. Gil?”
You pay for your ticket and you go watch the geek
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/7/2016 @ 8:14 amWho immediately walks up to you when he hears you speak
And says, “How does it feel to be such a freak?”
And you say, “Impossible!” as you linger there still
And something is happening here but you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mr. Gil?”
February 07, 2016, 09:21 am
Poll: Trump’s lead grows in NH days before primary
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s lead widened in New Hampshire just days before the primary, according to the latest CNN/WMUR tracking poll.
THIRTY THREE percent of likely Republican primary voters said they support Trump, giving the billionaire a SEVENTEEN point lead over his closest GOP rival. Trump gained FIVE points from a similar tracking poll last week.
Trump now has MORE THAN DOUBLE the support of Sen. Marco Rubio, who came in second with 16 percent support.
Sen. Ted Cruz has 14 percent for THIRD place.
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/268544-poll-trumps-lead-grows-in-nh-days-before-primary
sound awake (04e750) — 2/7/2016 @ 8:28 amWhat did the pulls(sic) say before Iowa?
nk (9faaca) — 2/7/2016 @ 8:31 amAnti-Refugee Rallies Sweep Europe As Nationalists Declare “We Will Not Surrender Europe To Islam”
“We’re demonstrating against the Islamisation of Europe, we’re demonstrating against immigration, against an invasion,” Robert Winnicki, leader of Poland’s far-right Ruch Narodowy (National Movement), told a crowd of hundreds in Warsaw.
At the rally in Birmingham, PEGIDA supporters carried signs that read “TRUMP IS RIGHT.”
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-02-06/anti-refugee-rallies-sweep-europe-nationalists-declare-we-will-note-surrender-europe
sound awake (04e750) — 2/7/2016 @ 8:32 amthe two big legislative initiatives I’m campaigning on are repealing Obamacare, and adopting a simple flat tax to abolish the IRS – Mr. Ted Cruz
roobs the fetus-humping robot was sad. He’d tried so hard to fulfill his directives. “Now everyone hates me,” he thought glumly.
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 8:33 amHEADLINE: “Carson says an apologetic Cruz asked for a meeting at debate.”
Ben Carson said late Saturday that Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas approached him during an off-camera break at ABC’s Republican debate to apologize for his campaign’s conduct during the Iowa caucuses and requested a one-on-one meeting with him.
“He said he’s sorry that this happened and he wants to sit down and talk,” Carson said in an interview with The Washington Post. “He wants to discuss the whole thing and clear the air.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/02/07/carson-says-an-apologetic-cruz-asked-for-a-meeting-at-debate/
sound awake (04e750) — 2/7/2016 @ 8:35 amlispy fruit loop is gonna be dining out on how he was brutal victimized in iowa probably til he dies
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 8:37 am*brutally* victimized i mean
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 8:37 am“It was then Bush’s turn to interrupt. Bush asked how “tough” it was to try and take property from an elderly woman. Trump then shushed him.
“Let me talk. Let me talk. Quiet,” he said.
The audience loudly booed Trump, driving the back-and-forth off the rails. Trump said audience members were all members of the Republican establishment.
“That’s all of his donors and special interests out there,” Trump said of the people booing him. “That’s what it is. And by the way, let me just tell you: We needed tickets. You can’t get them. You know who has the tickets? … Donors, special interests, the people that are putting up the money. That’s who it is.”
The booing continued. Trump said he was self-funding his campaign, so Republican donors weren’t a fan of his candidacy.
“The reason they’re not loving me is I don’t want their money. I’m going to do the right thing for the American public,” Trump said.
He was booed again shortly after.”
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/7/2016 @ 8:41 amthere was definitely something different about the audience
and just when the establishment chambersluts are at their most desperate
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 8:44 amAmerica Is Flint Nicholas Kristof, New York Times
thank you President Obama
thank you so much for all you do
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 8:59 amEvery once in a while I stare down both barrels of God’s love and I realize.
Haiku said it better.
Hai zod, coronello!
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 9:04 amThank you, Steve…
Mister we could use a man like Ronald Reagan again…
“”Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears: to your confidence rather than your doubts. My dream is that you will travel the road ahead with liberty’s lamp guiding your steps and opportunity’s arm steadying your way.”
— President Ronald Reagan, 1992
“I have fought a good fight,
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/7/2016 @ 9:05 amI have finished my course,
I have kept the faith.”
— Timothy 2:4:7
Greetings:
I get what you’re saying about Senator Cruz, but, me, I’m holding out for the moat with the crocodiles that President Obama mentioned.
11B40 (6abb5c) — 2/7/2016 @ 9:12 amhttp://americandigest.org/mt-archives/american_studies/ronald_reagan_was_not_una.php
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/7/2016 @ 9:12 amamerica lol
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 9:24 amYou’re a good man, coronello. I choose to not believe the rumors* otherwise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CWUZs9070I
Keep up the good work.
*just kidding about the rumors.
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 9:39 amhappyfeets I would crawl across two football fields full of broken glass just for the chance to give you what you deserve.
It’s why I win and you lose. I’m. Dedicated.
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 9:54 ami win a lot i got a free m burger it was delicious
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 9:56 amalso it was free, which is very frooger
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 9:57 am600 yards of broken glass. I can do this!
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 9:59 amThe thing about broken glass is, it tends to stick to you. Your clothes, your skin. So when you get tired and fall down and land on it AGAIN it’s still there, now stabbing back into you.
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:04 amWhen Ted Cruz was still a Canadian, Donald Trump was tough on immigration…a historic review
Kimosaabe (c793d7) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:04 amhttp://theconservativetreehouse.com/2016/01/19/when-cruz-was-still-canadian-donald-trump-was-tough-on-immigration-a-historic-review/
I draw the line at a thousand yards.
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:13 amis ok picklehead just be careful for so you don’t get cut
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:14 amSan Antonio police announced plans to investigate the employees of the San Antonio Observer for, well, whatever they might have ever done.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:15 amA wall is important, I totally agree. But illegals are pouring in from Asia and elsewhere using various kinds of visas. I taught kids from Korea and they would ask questions like, which birth certificate should I use on this application?
Gah.
Addressing ALL the illegals is my issue, not singling out the ones from south of the border, so I wish Cruz would talk about this. And personally I think we need to pause legal and illegal immigration until the economy can provide jobs to Americans, if that could ever happen with this now centrally planned system.
Patricia (5fc097) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:26 amI am not, btw, very fond of the eVerify thing. I really do not want the government to OK my jobs. Having been caught in the original Watch List hell and needing years to get them to fix it, I am not enamored of government database accuracy. What happens if their computers confuse Juan Carlos the 3rd generation citizen with Juan Carlos the illegal? How long does Juan have to live in a shelter before he can get work again? Do NOT tell me it won’t happen.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:33 amOr Juan Carlos the former King of Spain. That would be embarrassing.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:35 amAnd of course, there is a potential for the Lois Lerners of the world to really mess with political opponents. OOOPS!
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:37 amI am not, btw, very fond of the eVerify thing. I really do not want the government to OK my jobs.
yes yes yes
why should small business people have to do the jobs the inept cowardly failmerican govwernment can’t or won’t do
we have literally like 80,000 metric tons of pension piggy border patrol losers who have ONE job
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:37 am*government* i mean
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:38 amWe need to address the current immigration law which favors future welfare recipients (largely older relatives of current US legal residents) who will never pay one dime in taxes, but will collect Medicare and SSI. Instead, it should favor able-bodied men and women in their 20’s who seek opportunity.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:43 amyes yes Australia for example is very good at this Mr. M
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:45 amOddly, the illegals are just the group we want, and the legals are the group we’d rather not get. Pretty much par for the course in a law created by Teddy the K.
Can we round up all the Tias and Tios and ship them back, and keep all the maids and gardeners?
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:49 amProbably not; poor optics. But going forward we should try to be less stupid. Walls are better at keeping 60-somethings out than 20-somethings.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:53 amyes yes yes Mr. M and we can do that after we secure the border
and everyone knows it
the chambersluts and the big city mayors who just want warm bodies for the census counts, they both
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 10:54 amknow it
none of the fact checks i’ve seen so far have busted lispy fruit loop Dr. Ben Carson on his assertion that 22 veterans off themselves every day
i mean c’mon just on the face of it that’s ludicrous
and he’s supposed to be one of the smarter ones
happyfeet (831175) — 2/7/2016 @ 11:25 amThat number comes from the VA and is what comes up when you Google “us veteran suicide rate”.
It comes from a VA study which was clearly not peer-reviewed.. It does not stand up to any reasoned analysis. As in…
http://taskandpurpose.com/truth-22-veteran-suicides-day/
Some basic numbers: There are between 20K and 30K suicides a year in the USA (depending on year). This amounts to 55 to 80 per day. To get to 22 veterans a day, about one out of 3 suicides would have to be veterans. This is unlikely. The article states:
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/7/2016 @ 11:46 amOh. I guess I should click other people’s links too, mr hf
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/7/2016 @ 11:47 amI sincerely hope Dr. Carson gets a chance to perform surgery on your brain, happyfeet.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 2/7/2016 @ 11:53 amIf it’s what I deserve speak openly, Pat.
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 11:55 amThe border wall is popular with everyone except the landowners along the border. The biggest problem with it is that it will cut off American access to the river except as authorized by our BLM/EPA overlords in DC. Get serious about building it on Mexico’s side and they might start to get serious about policing the border with us.
crazy (cde091) — 2/7/2016 @ 11:59 amMy childhood friend who was a veteran killed himself two years ago. My next door neighbor swallowed a bullet right around the same time.
Both of them had families with little kids.
The most heartbreaking conversation I’ve ever had was explaining to his little boy the halloween after that nobody would ever poison candy. God damn network news reporters to hell.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 2/7/2016 @ 11:59 amIt’s not a veteran’s thing specifically. It’s a you might get a job as a bartender if you’re lucky thing.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 2/7/2016 @ 12:12 pmIt’s an Obama’s government would prefer you were dead thing.
I wish, papertigrr, I heard about your friend’s problems earlier.
Steve57 (f61b03) — 2/7/2016 @ 12:16 pmI can’t believe that Rubio had the nerve to suggest that Obama is undermining America by design, rather than out of clueless sorority-girl airheadedness. And then the New Jersey Donut King who famously hugged Obama got mad at Rubio for even saying that in public.
Rubio must be a secret Communist or something. He’s too handsome to be President. What a jerk!
Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 2/7/2016 @ 12:17 pmTed Cruz IMHO has been pretty consistent on illegal immigration and the wall, which is part of why I support him.
Trump did make immigration central to this race, and I applaud him for that. But it’s clearly true that he didn’t originate the wall as a concept (in fairness, has he said he did?)
Interestingly, one of the other presidential candidates said it this way in November 2015;
“I voted numerous times when I was a senator to spend money to build a barrier to try to prevent illegal immigrants from coming in. And I do think you have to control your borders.”
Which one of them said that? Hint; one of the current presidential candidates who was in the Senate when congress voted to fund the wall in 2006. Second hint: currently the target of one of the FBI’s largest investigations ever. Yeah, her.
So, Trump was definitely not the first of the candidates to back the wall. If anything, he was late to the party. However, he does deserve credit for making it, and immigration in general, a central issue of the campaign. Before Trump entered the race it just wasn’t being talked about much, and Jeb Bush was the frontrunner.
Arizona CJ (da673d) — 2/7/2016 @ 12:22 pmDidn’t watch the debate but the Republican audiences in previous debates have all been pro establishment. I think it was Cruz or Trump that gave an antiTARP applause line (going back a couple debates) and it met with….crickets. If the GOP is now pro TARP, we’re already gone.
East Bay Jay (c65ac0) — 2/7/2016 @ 1:37 pmMe too, Steve. I’m sure you do your best in your corner of the world.
papertiger (c2d6da) — 2/7/2016 @ 1:54 pmI have much more here. In fact, Cruz was talking about a wall YEARS before Trump announced his 2016 candidacy.
Patterico (86c8ed) — 2/7/2016 @ 2:02 pmGet serious about building it on Mexico’s side
How about we build it on America’s side, but all of it south of the Rio Grande?
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/7/2016 @ 3:01 pm(in fairness, has he said he did?)
He has repeatedly said that the GOP would not be talking about immigration issues if he wasn’t in the race, which is utter and complete hogwash.
Kevin M (25bbee) — 2/7/2016 @ 3:05 pm