The GOP isn't anti-contraception or the "condom police" — and Americans have nothing to fear about the availability of that birth control method, Sen. Ted Cruz says.
In a potentially explosive line of questioning at an Iowa campaign stop Monday night — the last of three days' worth of events in the early voting state — the fiery GOP presidential candidate mocked Democratic White House contender Hillary Clinton and charges that conservative are anti-contraceptives, calling it a "made-up nonsense example,"
CNN reports.
"Heidi and I, we have two little girls. I'm very glad we don't have 17," he said of his wife. "And it's a great example when the war on women came up, Republicans would curl up in a ball, they'd say, 'Don't hurt me.' Jiminy Cricket!"
"Last I checked we don't have a rubber shortage in America," he said to uncomfortable laughter, CNN reports.
"When I was in college we had a machine in the bathroom, you put 50 cents in and voila! So yes, anyone who wants contraceptives can access them, but it's an utterly made-up nonsense issue."
Cruz also launched into a full-blown attack on Clinton's accusations of a GOP "war on women," calling it a tactic to divert attention from her political shortcomings.
"Imagine for a second you're Hillary Clinton," he said. "You're trying to think, 'How do I run?' Well you can't run on the economy because we have the lowest percentage of Americans working any year since 1977. You can't run on Obamacare because millions of people have lost their jobs, lost their health care, lost their doctors, seen their premiums skyrocket. You certainly can't run on foreign policy because every country you touched as secretary of state is a disaster."
"So what do you do?" he continued. "You go, 'Ah, ha! Condom police. I'm gonna make up a completely made-up threat and try to scare a bunch of folks into thinking someone's going to steal their birth control,'" Cruz said. "What nonsense."
Cruz told the crowd Clinton "embraces abortion on demand in all circumstances up until the moment of birth," Cruz said. "Partial-birth abortion with taxpayer funding, with no notification for parents in any circumstances — 91percent of Americans say that's nuts."
"So what do they do, they try to shift it," he said. "The war on women wasn't that, it was contraceptives. Now listen, I have been a conservative my entire life. I have never met anybody, any conservative who wants to ban contraceptives."
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