Donald Trump invoked New York City’s reaction to 9/11 to refute Cruz’s denigration of Manhattan, home of many things that make America great

New York is not a usual topic of discussion in a Republican debate. It has been firmly Democratic since 1988.

But there was an interesting discussion of the Empire State on Thursday night. Specifically, a discussion of “New York values”.

Ted Cruz has been accusing Donald Trump of having these New York values over the past week. Cruz makes the values sound sinister. But he hasn’t specified what he actually means. All he’s said is that New York values are “not Iowa values” and “not New Hampshire values”.

On Thursday during the Republican debate, Cruz finally elaborated on what his problem was with New York. His answer suggested his beef was mainly with New York City.

Cruz explains what New York values are

When asked to explain his comments, Cruz initially insisted, “People in South Carolina know what New York values are.” It’s a “socially liberal” place, he said, with “a focus on money and the media”. Cruz added that: “Not a lot of conservatives come from Manhattan.”

There’s a lot wrong with New York City. There are rats (who steal pizza). There are clubs where a beer costs $15. There is Williamsburg. There’s soy milk and almond milk and all the other kinds of milk.

But New York City has done a lot.

What about the Stonewall riots? The demonstrations by the LGBT community are seen as the one of the most important events in the fight for same-sex equality in the US.

What about the United Nations? It’s based in New York City. Among its achievements are the Montreal Protocol which reduced the emissions of CFCs to help protect the ozone layer. The United Nations Children’s Fund has also won the Nobel Peace prize and says it has helped save more than 90 million children worldwide.

These might not be Cruz’s favourite topics. But there are also things that Cruz and the other candidates should really like. America’s Parade, for example. It’s the largest celebration of veterans in the country.

There’s Wall Street. Cruz’s wife, Heidi Cruz, is an investment banker for Goldman Sachs. It would make sense for the Cruz’s to like it there – the bank even provided a huge loan to bank-roll his Senate election campaign.

Donald Trump reacts to Ted Cruz’s comments on New York values

There’s One World Trade Center: the tallest building in the country, the tallest building in the western hemisphere.

And New York City was also the site of the worst terrorist attack to occur on American soil. Surely a lot of empathy remains for the people affected by 9/11.

Trump scored a powerful rhetorical point when he described watching the Twin Towers collapse – “We saw death and the smell of death was in the air for months,” he said – which left Cruz left awkwardly applauding Trump’s invocation of the terrorist attack and those who died as the New Yorker went on to describe Cruz’s comments as insulting.

So Cruz might be well advised to stop his denigration of a city of nine million people and a state of 20 million people.



While Cruz may have been the champion debater on stage, Trump clearly came away the better from that exchange.

Aside from all the above, Guardian US data editor Mona Chalabi has pointed out a New York Times graphic that shows the state is not as safely Democratic as you might think: whole swaths of the north and west of the state are pretty strongly Republican.

New York political preferences. Photograph: New York Times







