Never shy in defense of their city, New Yorkers came out swinging - via social and traditional media - on Friday after the Texas Republican's comments about New York "values" during a presidential debate.
Reuters reports Cruz's remarks, aimed as a put-down of campaign rival Donald Trump during Thursday evening's sour-toned Republican debate, sparked a backlash from city and upstate dwellers, politicians and ordinary citizens alike.
One theme emerged in particular as New Yorkers piled in: the idea that the senator may be less fastidious when it comes to financing his campaign to be his party's nominee for the November presidential election.
"I’m sure Ted Cruz was very negative about New York money," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo told NY1 anchor Pat Kiernan, calling on Cruz to apologize to all New Yorkers.
"I’m sure he’s not going to accept any money from any New Yorker. I’m sure if he has, he’s going to return all of those contributions," said Cuomo, a Democrat.
Cruz, top challenger to front-runner Trump in the Republican race, has lately been denouncing "New York values" to try to connect the real estate mogul to the city's liberalism and to reinforce his own standing as a conservative.
During Thursday evening's debate, Cruz said on the values issue, "And listen, there are many, many wonderful, wonderful working men and women in the state of New York. But everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro-gay-marriage, focus around money and the media."
Trump responded with an emotional tribute to the resilience his home city showed in response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
According to Twitter Inc data, that exchange between Cruz and Trump was the second-most tweeted moment during the debate.
Among tweets shared on Friday was the cover of the New York Daily News, which curtly told Cruz: "Drop Dead, Ted."
Michael Bruno (@MikeJBruno) tweeted on Friday: “@tedcruz you, sir, wouldn’t last 2 minutes in New York. We don’t take kindly to people like you. And that’s our #NewYorkValues.”
Nicholas Dyer (@NicholasDDyer), who identifies himself as a Comedy Central producer on Twitter, said: "@tedcruz is the kind of guy who takes his family to the Times Square Applebee's for dinner. #NewYorkValues." He was referring scathingly to a chain restaurant that is normally filled with tourists from out of town.
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