Patti Davis: Reagan Would Be 'Appalled' by Cruz, Others

Patti Davis, the daughter of Ronald Reagan, said her father would be "so appalled" by the current Republican presidential candidates.

Davis, a long-time liberal, made the comments on Monday on SiriusXM radio. When asked about U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz invoking Reagan's name on the campaign trail, Davis put down Cruz and the rest of the Republican field, said The Huffington Post.

"It may be this week he's doing it more than the others," Davis said of Cruz. "But they all kind of do it. But yet, they are so not like him. My father would be so appalled at what's going on. He would be so appalled at these candidates. I don't think he would be a Republican. And if another Ronald Reagan came along right now, I don't think the Republican Party would accept him."

Davis also said on the show that her father would have supported stricter gun laws. Reagan was shot in an assassination attempt in 1981 by John Hinckley Jr. Jim Brady, Reagan's former press secretary, was paralyzed when he was shot during the attack.

"He came out for the Brady bill in, I think, it was 1991," Davis said about the bill that mandated federal background checks. "I don't think he'd ever be able to conceive what's going on now … the amount of gun violence or weaponry."

Reagan's children have long feuded over their father's legacy and how he would have been seen by today's Republic Party. In an interview celebrating their late father's 100th birthday, Reagan's son and conservative commentator Michael Reagan said the former president would have been embraced by the Tea Party, a movement that supports Cruz, said ABC News.

"He would have endorsed the Tea Party, what they're doing, and the fact is Ronald Reagan was the original Tea Party," Michael Reagan told ABC News. "(Ronald Reagan) understood that the electorate lived in the grass roots of this country. … It was grassroots America that supported Ronald Reagan back in 1980. That's why he became the President of the United States of America."

The youngest Reagan child argued that his father's record on social issues such as abortion and illegal immigration were liberal and would have put the former president at odds with today's party.

Related Stories:

• Ronald Reagan Would Have Backed Gay Marriage, Says Daughter Patti Davis
  
• 9 Reasons Ted Cruz Has Surged Past Trump in Iowa, Climbed National Polls