A widower of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is inviting Sen. Ted Cruz Rafael (Ted) Edward CruzLoeffler calls for hearing in wake of Netflix's 'Cuties' Health care in the crosshairs with new Trump Supreme Court list 'Parks and Rec' cast members hosting special reunion to raise money for Wisconsin Democrats MORE (R-Texas) to Ground Zero in order to show him what “New York values” look like.



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NYPD officer Jim Smith, husband of fallen police officer Moira Smith, sent the invitation in a Facebook post on Thursday after Cruz attacked Republican primary front-runner Donald Trump Donald John TrumpHR McMaster says president's policy to withdraw troops from Afghanistan is 'unwise' Cast of 'Parks and Rec' reunite for virtual town hall to address Wisconsin voters Biden says Trump should step down over coronavirus response MORE for embodying “New York values.”

“I invite you to come to the National 9-11 Memorial and Museum and see for yourself, and perhaps learn something about, the values of New Yorkers and the Heroes who defended American values on September 11th, 2001,” Smith said in the post, as first reported by the Daily Beast.

Trump responded in a similar fashion at Thursday night’s Republican primary debate, invoking the 9/11 attacks and calling the statement “very insulting” to New Yorkers.



“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,” Trump said at the debate.



“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,” he continued.

New York Rep. Pete King (R) also took a shot at Cruz for the putdown, pointing to Cruz’s own New York connections.



“What Ted Cruz said was outrageous, it was disgusting, it was hypocritical,” King said Friday on CNN.

“I mean, for one thing, his wife works at a large investment bank in New York, and he got a million-dollar loan from that bank, and he’s always coming to New York to raise money for Republicans — including gay Republicans, who he tells behind closed doors he’ll look the other way on gay marriage,” he added.