The civilized veneer between the two presidential rivals vanished as they sparred in tonight’s Republican debate over Sen. Ted Cruz’s citizenship (he was born in Canada though his mother is American) and Donald Trump’s “New York values.”
Cruz convincingly dismissed Trump’s birther conspiracy mongering:
But after Cruz’s condescending discussion of “New York values”—”most people know exactly what New York values are, though if you’re from New York you might not”—Trump seized the opportunity to talk rather stirringly about the September 11 attacks:
“When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on Earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York,” Trump said. “It was a very insulting statement that Ted made.”
Soon afterwards, Trump was back to talking about excluding Muslims immigrants from the United States. But there was a brief moment when his defense of New York made him look almost human.