Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on Thursday responded to Apple CEO Tim Cook coming out as gay by saying that was Cook’s “personal decision.”
{mosads}Cruz, who opposes gay marriage, switched to the larger issue when asked on CNBC on Thursday about a piece by Cook in Bloomberg Businessweek in which Cook came out.
“Those are his personal choices. I’ll tell you, I love my iPhone,” Cruz said.
“Listen, Tim Cook makes his personal decisions, and that is his life. My focus is on the constitutional question of who has the authority to make decisions,” he later added.
Cruz said that marriage is a “question for the states” because of the country’s federalist system.
“This is something we’ve seen over and over again, which is the federal government and federal courts deciding they don’t trust the people,” Cruz said. “They look down on the people, they don’t trust us to make judgments about our own lives, so the federal government and federal courts are going to step in and impose their own policy preferences.”
Cruz is a possible 2016 presidential contender. Asked about former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-Fla.), another possible candidate, Cruz took a pass, saying he would let Bush make a decision first.
“If we run another candidate like a Bob Dole or a John McCain or a Mitt Romney, we will end up with the same result, which is millions of people will stay home on Election Day,” Cruz then said.
He added that they were all “good, honorable men.”