Former congressman Ron Paul slammed Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, accusing the presidential hopeful of being “owned by Goldman Sachs.”

“They think he’s for the free market, and he’s owned by Goldman Sachs,” former Texas congressman Ron Paul told Fox News on Friday. “He and Hillary have more in common than we [libertarians] have with Trump or anyone else.” (Source: “Ted Cruz ‘owned by Goldman Sachs,’ has ‘more in common’ with Hillary – Ron Paul,” RT, February 6, 2016.)

Paul was answering a question about which candidate might inherit the so-called “liberty vote” constituency established during Paul’s Republican presidential bids in 2008 and 2012. Paul was the presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1988 U.S. presidential election.

Cruz, a senator from Texas, is courting the strong libertarian constituency in New Hampshire, whose motto is “Live Free or Die.”




Paul’s comments came ahead of Tuesday’s Republican primary in that state.

As of last Friday, the Real Clear Politics poll averages show Cruz in third place in New Hampshire with 11.7%, behind Senator Marco Rubio (Florida) with 15.1% and Donald Trump with 31.1%. (Source: Ibid.)

“[Libertarians] are going to have to go elsewhere, and unfortunately we don’t have much democracy in this country, because the Republicans and the Democrats dominate,” Paul told Fox Business.

Ron Paul is also the father of Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who dropped out of the Republican presidential race on Wednesday.

Earlier last week, Ron Paul told The Washington Post that Cruz was a “fake libertarian” who did not deserve support from voters worried that Rand Paul was slipping. (Source: “Courted by Cruz, New Hampshire’s libertarians ask if they need politics at all,” The Washington Post, February 4, 2016.)

Goldman Sachs, founded in 1869, is an American multinational investment banking firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily for institutional clients. It is headquartered in New York, one of the world’s top financial centers.