CNN's Toobin: Cruz's 'New York Values' Comment Anti-Semitic

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin on Thursday said Texas Sen. Ted Cruz was sending an anti-Semitic message when he began slamming "New York values" during his presidential campaign in January.

"Let's be honest, remember what Ted Cruz said," Toobin said on CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer."

"He said New York values are about money and they're about the media. That's an anti-Semitic trope from a hundred years. It's been around for a very long time."

Everyone in New York, and, indeed, the whole country, understands what Cruz was saying, Toobin said, adding that it is making big problems for Cruz in the upcoming April 19 New York primary.

And it's not just Jewish voters who are offended, Toobin said, but "people who don't appreciate those kinds of stereotypes. Trump is going to hammer away on it. And Cruz can try to explain it away, but you can't explain what you said when its meaning is obvious."

Blitzer noted that Cruz says he was referring to liberal politicians in New York state, including Sen. Charles Rangel and former Rep. Anthony Weiner.

"But they have nothing to do with money and media," Toobin said. "Money and media is Jews. This is just an old-fashioned anti-Semitic stereotype, derogatory term, and everybody understands it."

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