Ted Cruz is "eminently qualified" to be president of the United States — and Donald Trump's birther attack is maybe "a back-handed compliment" because he is closing in on the Republican front-runner, Cruz adviser Victoria Coates told
Newsmax TV on Thursday.
"His mother, Eleanor, is from Delaware and has always been an American citizen, as has he — and this is no different," Coates, who advises the Texas senator on national security issues, told "The Steve Malzberg Show" in an interview.
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Coates is the author of the new book,
"David's Sling: The History of Democracy in Ten Works of Art."
As for Trump's attacks, she said: "Maybe it's a back-handed compliment, that if our numbers got good enough it was going to be brought up in an attempt to trip the senator up with an issue that isn't really an issue."
When Malzberg asked whether Cruz was hard to "trip up," Coates responded: "He is."
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