Donald Trump accepted Ted Cruz’s claim on Thursday that he has “New York City values” — and turned the attack around.
During the GOP presidential debate in South Carolina, Cruz questioned Trump’s conservative credentials by arguing that Trump has New York values that are socially liberal.
“Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I’m just saying,” said Cruz.
But Trump embraced his New York roots, invoking the city’s response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terror 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. “The people in New York fought and fought and fought, and we saw more death, and even the smell of death. Nobody understood it. And it was with us for months, the smell in the air.”
“I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made,” Trump concluded.
Watch Cruz and Trump go at it in the video above.