Ted Cruz’s "birther" nightmare is a dangerous development that could have voters throwing their weight behind Donald Trump rather than chance a possible court challenge to the Texas senator, veteran political analyst Dick Morris tells
Newsmax TV.
"It's a dangerous issue for Cruz because the way it works is not the way a classical negative works, where you either believe it, in which case you vote against the guy, you don’t believe it, in which case it makes no difference," Morris said Tuesday to J.D. Hayworth and Miranda Kahn, hosts of "Newsmax Prime."
"You can believe it a little bit and say, oh, I don't know. But maybe I'd better vote for Trump because Cruz could be knocked out. The Census Bureau defines foreign born people as born abroad and a native born as born in the U.S. or to a native American parent. But that may not be how voters define it."
Watch Newsmax TV on
DirecTV Ch. 349, DISH Ch. 223 and
Verizon FiOS Ch. 115. Get Newsmax TV on your cable system —
Click Here Now
Morris, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, said the correct strategy for Cruz — born in Canada to an American mother and Cuban father — is to point out that much of the controversy has been generated by Hillary Clinton supporters and liberals like Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe.
"That's because they know that they can beat Trump, or they think they can beat Trump, and they're worried about beating Cruz," Morris said.
"So they want to shoot Cruz with this silver bullet so they can get Donald. And a lot of this controversy now is being animated and fanned by those considerations."
Morris isn’t surprised at the ongoing criticism of Trump by veterans of the Republican establishment, such as John Sununu.
The former New Hampshire governor and Chief of Staff for President George H.W. Bush labelled the billionaire developer a "lefty liberal" who's "thin-skinned" and "all mouth."
"Trump is being defined by who his enemies are and his enemies are the Republican establishment. There's a palpable feeling among Republicans that they have been betrayed," Morris said.
"They voted for Congress in '10 and they got [House Speaker John] Boehner. They elected [George W.] Bush and they got [Supreme Court Justice John] Roberts. They elected a Republican Senate and they got [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnell.
"Nothing changed and they gave away the store to [President Barack] Obama. So there's a feeling that if we win this election, they want it really to be a win and Trump and Cruz stand out from the field as really offering that kind of change."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.