Ted Cruz’s wife is coming to his defense on a citizenship fight started by presidential rival Donald Trump.
Heidi Cruz says there’s no doubt her husband is a U.S. citizen, despite his being in Canada.
“I fully expect that this will fade, as Ted is indisputably a U.S. citizen,” she said on The Boston Herald Radio’s “Morning Meeting.”
{mosads}“The definition of natural-born citizen is not in dispute and Ted definitely fits that description.”
earlier this week Trump, Cruz’s competitor for the GOP nomination, suggested the Texan’s Canadian origins could become “very precarious” for the GOP. He suggested Democrats will argue that Cruz isn’t really a citizen.
Heidi Cruz said her husband is coming under attack because he is doing well in the race.
“I think this is an example of Ted winning this race and people looking for things to be a distraction,” she said. “We’re really not worried about something that is not in dispute in a legal sense.”
Cruz’s mother was a U.S. citizen when she gave birth in Canada.
“You may recall Sen. John McCain [R-Ariz.] had this question raised and it was quickly dismissed,” Heidi Cruz said of the 2008 GOP presidential nominee, born to an American mother on a military base on the Panama Canal.
“I will point out that [2012 GOP presidential nominee] Mitt Romney’s wonderful father who ran a campaign for president many years ago was born in Mexico but to a woman who was a U.S. citizen,” she added of George Romney, a 1968 GOP presidential candidate.
Heidi Cruz pointedly did not criticize Trump.
“Our campaign is not going to be a campaign of personalities, it is going to be a campaign of issues,” she said.
“We have great respect for all the candidates who have taken this great journey to try and make our country a better place.”