Republican presidential candidates Texas Senator Ted Cruz told fellow candidate Donald Trump “not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan” during Thursday’s GOP primetime debate on the Fox Business Network.

Cruz, in response to a question as to what he meant when he said Trump “embodies New York values,” stated, that “values in New York City are socially liberal” and “focus around money and the media. He continued, “Not too many years ago, Donald did a long interview with Tim Russert, and in that interview he explained his views on a whole host of issues, that were very, very different from the views he’s describing now. And his explanation, he said, look, I’m from New York, that’s what we believe in New York. Those aren’t Iowa values, but this is what we believe in New York. And so, that was his explanation.”

He then added, “I guess I can frame it another way, not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I’m just saying.” A seeming reference to Trump saying, “not many evangelicals come out of Cuba.”

Trump responded, “So, conservatives actually do come out of Manhattan, including William F. Buckley and others, just so you understand. And just so — if i could, because he insulted a lot of people. I’ve had more calls on that statement that Ted made, that New York is a great place, it’s got great people, it’s got loving people, wonderful people. When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than New York. You had two 110-story buildings come crashing down, I saw them come down, thousands of people killed, and the cleanup started the next day, and it was the most horrific cleanup, probably in the history of doing this, and in construction, I was down there. And I’ve never seen anything like it. And the people in New York fought, and fought, and fought, and we saw more death and even the smell of death, nobody understood it, and it was with us for months, the smell. the air. And we rebuilt downtown Manhattan, and everybody in the world watched, and everybody in the world loved New York, and loved New Yorkers, and I have to tell you, that was a very insulting statement that Ted made.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett