This article is more than 2 years old.

January 15, 2016 This article is more than 2 years old.

Just when you thought the 2016 primaries couldn’t get any weirder, Texas senator Ted Cruz has done the unthinkable: helping Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton find common ground, with an attack on their home state.

“Most people know exactly what New York values are,” Cruz told moderator Maria Bartiromo last night (Jan. 14). “Socially liberal, pro-gay marriage, pro-abortion, focused on money and the media.”

Trump responded with a surprisingly moving paene to the city’s resilience after the Sept. 11 attacks. “It was a very insulting statement that Ted made,” the Manhattan real estate mogul concluded.

Hillary Clinton—a former New York senator whose campaign headquarters are in Brooklyn and who lives in suburban Chappaqua—had this to say today:

Bill de Blasio, Democratic mayor of New York City, echoed Clinton’s sentiments:

Other pundits weren’t as eager to praise Trump’s hometown defense, citing the contrast between his campaign’s xenophobic rhetoric with the city’s multiculturalism:

Meanwhile, some noticed a discrepancy between Cruz’s public distaste for the New York lifestyle and his dependence on raising campaign funds from New York City donors.

And, of course, jabs at all things New York carry a special kind of dog-whistle significance: