New York City Hall fires back at Cruz: ‘Be a man’

New York City mayor Bill de Blasio’s office rebuked Ted Cruz on Wednesday after the GOP presidential candidate harshly criticized the mayor’s record at a campaign stop in the Bronx.

“Some friendly advice for Ted Cruz,” spokeswoman Karen Hinton wrote in an email to The Hill. 

{mosads}“Be a leader. Be a man. Start sounding more presidential and less extremist. Talk about NYC’s job growth, low crime rates, need for more affordable housing, parental leave and the city’s successful pre-K effort. Bring people together. Stop dividing them.”

Hours earlier, the Texas senator held a press conference in New York City in which he took direct aim at the city’s mayor as he explained his controversial remarks about GOP front-runner Donald Trump espousing “New York values.”

There, Cruz explained that he was referring to the “liberal Democratic politicians,” like de Blasio, who he said “have been hammering the people of New York for some time.”

Cruz accused de Blasio of trying to “to throw young African-American and Hispanic kids out of schools” by shuttering charter schools, and cheered the police officers who turned their backs on the mayor after relations soured with City Hall in the aftermath of Eric Garner’s controversial death.

Cruz is campaigning in New York ahead of the April 19 primary there. Trump is the heavy favorite to take a large majority of the state’s 95 delegates.