Cruz Campaign Press Release - Cruz for President Responds to Trump Campaign Demand to Pull TV Ad "Supreme Trust"

HOUSTON, Texas — Today at a press conference, presidential candidate Ted Cruz responded to a 'cease and desist' letter dated February 16, 2016 from Jeffrey Goldman, an attorney representing Mr. Trump's presidential campaign. The letter demanded that the Cruz campaign immediately stop running a campaign ad entitled "Supreme Trust" featuring Donald Trump currently running in South Carolina in advance of the state's Republican Party primary on Saturday. The letter was addressed to Ted Cruz, Chad Sweet, the campaign's chairman and Jeff Roe, the campaign manger.

The recent death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia left a vacancy on the nation's highest court. Ted Cruz called on the Senate not to confirm any nominees from President Obama but instead to await the outcome of the 2016 presidential election, allowing the voters to have a say in what kind of Justice would replace Scalia who was a constitutional conservative. The Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has pledged that he would not allow the Senate to confirm an Obama nominee, effectively allowing the next administration to make the nomination.

The 30-second spot makes the case for how consequential electing the right candidate for the White House, is because the next president will fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court and as many as four vacancies over his term. Those appointments will set the ideological direction of the Court for a generation by nominating constitutional conservatives or liberal activists Justices.

The ad begins with the words: "Life, Marriage, Religious Liberty, the Second Amendment. We're just one Supreme Court Justice away from losing them all." The ad continues with Donald Trump in his own words including Mr. Trump answering a question by the late Tim Russert about whether he would ban the controversial abortion procedure known as partial-birth abortion where a late-term unborn child's life is taken just prior to birth. Mr. Trump, who was flirting with running as a Reform Party candidate at the time, answers the question by saying that he is "very pro-choice". When asked directly if he would ban the procedure, twice Mr. Trump says, "no" then goes on to say that he is "pro-choice in every respect."

The ad's announcers says, "We cannot trust Donald Trump with these serious decisions."

The Goldman letter sent to the Cruz campaign insists that the ad stop running because the Trump campaign is claiming that the ad is defamatory and meets the definition of a libelous statement.

The Cruz campaign disagrees. A letter sent to Mr. Goldman in response says the ad is not an attempt to mislead the public. The objective of the ad is precisely the opposite – to provide the voters of South Carolina with important and accurate information so that they can make an informed decision when they go to the polls.

The Cruz letter goes on to say that every statement in the ad concerning Mr. Trump's pro-abortion views comes from Mr. Trump's own mouth.

According to the Cruz campaign, the point of the ad is that they do not believe Mr. Trump's recent campaign claim that he is pro-life and, more importantly, the voters should not believe Mr. Trump either.

"Mr. Trump's implausible claim that he is pro-life doesn't meet a reality test," said Rick Tyler, a campaign spokesman. "His words and actions simply cannot be reconciled. Mr. Trump last week said that Planned Parenthood does do wonderful things, but supporting Planned Parenthood is incompatible with holding the pro-life position Mr. Trump is now claiming."

Planned Parenthood is the nation's largest abortion provider and was caught in a "baby-parts selling" scandal last year.

Moreover, the Cruz campaign pointed to Mr. Trump's history of generous political contributions to help elect pro-choice candidates to office, including Hillary Clinton, Chuck Schumer, Andrew Cuomo, Anthony Weiner and Rahm Emanuel.

Tyler went on to say that there is ample and recent evidence casting grave doubt about the truthfulness of Mr. Trump's campaign claims that he is truly pro-life.

Tyler questioned the Trump campaign's demand that the voters not be allowed to hear what Mr. Trump himself has said or know what Mr. Trump has done.

The Cruz campaign said that based upon these facts it will not pull the the ad because it is accurate and factual whether Mr. Trump and his army of lawyers agree or not.

In fact, they now plan to air the ad with greater frequency.