Donald Trump launches first attack ad, takes aim at Ted Cruz
Donald Trump is taking aim at Republican rival Ted Cruz in his first attack ad of the election cycle, painting the Texas senator as a flip-flopper on immigration reform.
The ad shows a Fox News interview with Cruz from December where he was pressed on whether he had ever supported a path to legalization for undocumented immigrants.
"It sounded like you wanted the bill to pass," anchor Bret Baier said.
Cruz gave a jumbled response, attempting to explain that the 2013 amendment he backed would have prevented undocumented immigrants from obtaining citizenship. The bill in its entirety, however, still allowed for a pathway to legalization.
"Of course I wanted the bill to pass, what -- my amendment to pass," Cruz told Baier. "What my amendment did is take citizenship off the table but it doesn't mean -- what it doesn't mean that I supported other aspects of the bill."
The ad continues, with the words "Pro Immigration" and "Pro Amnesty" flashing across Cruz's visage.
In contrast, the spot plays out an ABC News interview with Trump, where the real estate mogul calls for a stop to people "pouring in" from across the southern border.
The Trump campaign will air the ad in the early-voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. The billionaire has previously promised to spend at least $2 million a week on advertising.
In response, Cruz is preparing to air his own anti-Trump ad, slamming the real estate mogul on eminent domain and saying: "Trump won't change the system -- he's what's wrong with it."
The 30-second ad opens with a definition of "eminent domain," calling it a "fancy term for politicians seizing private property to enrich the fat cats who bankroll them -- like Trump."
The spot cuts to a Fox News interview where Trump says he thinks "eminent domain is wonderful." It goes on to charge Trump with bulldozing a widow's home in Atlantic City in order to build a "limousine parking lot at his casino."
The Cruz campaign told CBS News they will be working their new ad into the current rotation of spots hitting the airwaves in early-nominating states. The ad will begin airing tomorrow.
"Just as we stood up to Donald Trump's misleading attacks in the last debate, we'll stand up to his attack ads now," Jason Miller, a campaign spokesperson, said in a statement Friday. "Trump's record on eminent domain is just one issue causing conservatives to say, 'Trump's not one of us.'"
In recent days, just as the early-nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire draw nearer, Cruz has ramped up his attacks on Trump's policy positions.
Cruz compared the billionaire's health care proposals as "indistinguishable from Bernie Sanders" during an interview with ABC News that aired early Friday.
"Look, he's bold, he's brash, he's an amazing marketer. I mean this man is an entertainer and marketer par excellence," Cruz said. "I will draw policy distinctions. That's fair game in politics but the personal insults, no matter how ugly he gets, I will not respond."