15 Ted Cruz quotes
Donald Trump has attracted a lot of media attention for his wild quotes and blunt style of speaking. But Texas Senator Ted Cruz, Republican winner of the Iowa caucuses, has an outspoken style all his own -- with a penchant for making humorous, surprising statements that will definitely grab your attention.
Here are 15 of his most memorable quotes through the years.
Ted Cruz
"Last I checked, we don't have a rubber shortage in America. Look, when I was in college, we had a machine in the bathroom, you put 50 cents in and voila."
Cruz, a staunch pro-life advocate, has called for the federal defunding of Planned Parenthood. So, this was the way he responded to his opponents at a campaign stop on Nov. 30, 2015, in Bettendorf, Iowa, who argued the senator's position denies women easy access to contraception.
Ted Cruz
On March 15, 2015, shortly before officially announcing his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination, Senator Cruz summarized President Obama's policies by stating, "The whole world's on fire!"
A scared 3-year-old girl in the audience thought Cruz was speaking literally. So, she asked, "The world's on fire?" And Cruz replied:
"The world is on fire! Yes! Your world is on fire!"
Ted Cruz
"I don't think there's been a day on this floor that I haven't worn my argument boots. ... I am not in my argument boots and I will confess, I really do feel embarrassed by that."
Senator Cruz is well known for wearing his stylish ostrich-skin cowboy boots -- even when he argued for his state in front of the U.S. Supreme Court as Texas Solicitor General. But during his infamous 21-hour, 23-minute Obamacare faux filibuster on the floor of the U.S. Senate on Sept. 25, 2013, the conservative firebrand noted he left his famous shoes at home.
Ted Cruz
"Twenty years from now if there is some obscure Trivial Pursuit question, I am confident I will be the answer."
Ted Cruz isn't afraid to joke at his own expense. During the same, lengthy speech in front of the U.S. Senate on Sept. 25, the senator made this semi self-deprecating statement.
Ted Cruz
Hollywood celeb Ashton Kutcher received a lot of praise from conservatives for a speech he gave at the Teen Choice Awards about the value of hard work. Ted Cruz, in particular, picked up on Kutcher's suggestion that smarts are sexier than a handsome appearance.
"Always be sexy," Cruz said on Sept. 25, 2013, quoting Kutcher. "I salute that message."
Ted Cruz
"When Americans tried it, they discovered they did not like green eggs and ham and they did not like Obamacare either. They did not like Obamacare in a box with a fox, in a house or with a mouse."
After reading the bedtime story "Green Eggs and Ham" to his daughters from the Senate floor in September 2013, the Texas senator circled the discussion back to Obamacare, Dr. Seuss-style.
Ted Cruz
"I'll buy you a tequila.Or even some famous Colorado brownies."
After blasting the moderators of a recent CNBC debate for what he perceived as unfair questioning, Cruz extended this very interesting olive branch to journalist Carl Quintanilla, on Oct. 28, 2015.
Ted Cruz
"I will renounce any Canadian citizenship. Nothing against Canada, but I'm an American by birth and as a U.S. senator I believe I should be only an American."
Long before Donald Trump began questioning Cruz's status as a "natural born citizen," the Texas senator attempted to cut ties with America's neighbor to the north in August 2013.
Ted Cruz
In May 2015, following a shooting at a controversial cartoon contest in Texas, Cruz did not mince words:
"We saw the ugly face of radical Islam in Garland, Texas. Thankfully, one police officer helped those terrorists meet their virgins."
Ted Cruz
"If standing for liberty and standing for the Constitution make you a wacko bird, then you can count me a very proud wacko bird."
Shortly after Cruz was elected to the U.S. Senate, fellow Senator John McCain called the conservative -- along with some of his Tea Party allies -- a "wacko bird." Cruz then wore that criticism like a badge of honor during a Fox Business interview in June 2013.
Ted Cruz
"We will utterly destroy ISIS. ... We will carpet bomb them into oblivion. I don't know if sand can glow in the dark, but we're going to find out."
On Dec. 5, 2015, just a few days after the shooting massacre in San Bernardino, California, Sen. Ted Cruz escalated his rhetoric, vowing to take down ISIS by whatever means necessary.
Ted Cruz
"'Net Neutrality' is Obamacare for the Internet; the Internet should not operate at the speed of government."
Shortly after President Obama made known his support for Net Neutrality, the set of Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules that state all traffic on the Internet must be treated equally by service providers, Cruz came out in strong oppositionon Nov. 10, 2014.
Ted Cruz
During an appearance on Fox News' Hannity in September 2014, Senator Cruz blasted the Obama administration's lack of an aggressive military campaign to kill members of terrorist group ISIS:
"It's not our jobto be social workers in Iraq and put them all on expanded Medicaid. It is our job to kill terrorists who have declared war on America and who have demonstrated the intention and capability to murder innocent Americans."
Ted Cruz
Senator Cruz is known for wearing his Christianity on his sleeve and fighting back against what he perceives as hostility to religious faith. After an Air Force chaplain in Alaska was ordered to remove a blog entry stating that there are no atheists in fox holes. In March 2014, Cruz joked with attendees at a home-schooling convention by saying:
"I kind of thought it was the job of a chaplain to be insensitive to atheists."
Ted Cruz
While attending the Values Voter Summit in 2013, Cruz expressed his belief that The Affordable Care Act's birth control coverage mandate was a violation of the First Amendment and that President Obama's gun control efforts violate the Second Amendment. In October 2013, Cruz joked:
"You look at our Constitution, you look at our Bill of Rights, this is an administration that seems bound and determined to violate every single one of our Bill or Rights. I don't know that they've yet violated the Third Amendment, but I expect them to start quartering soldiers in people's homes soon."
