Fox News, CNN correspondents accuse Cruz of anti-Semitism

Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera accused Ted Cruz of anti-Semitism, saying his “New York values” comments were a slight against Jewish people.
He also predicted Cruz would get routed in the New York primary, finishing in third place behind Donald Trump and John Kasich.
{mosads}”Aside from the stinking anti-Semitic implications that I see in that whole ‘New York values’ money- and media-coated message that he put out there pandering to those Iowa voters, he also voted against Hurricane Sandy relief. He also voted against compensation for 9/11 victims. This is a man whose interests are absolutely antithetical to New York,” Rivera said on the “O’Reilly Factor” Thursday night.
O’Reilly jumped to Cruz’s defense, saying he didn’t see his comments as anti-Semitic.
“If he says ‘New York values’ to a bunch of Evangelicals, it’s not anti-Semitic,” O’Reilly said, adding that Cruz was referring to liberal New York Democrats.
“He could have very easily said that,” Rivera rebuked. “There’s a million ways he could have said that that he did not.”
CNN analyst Jeffrey Toobin echoed Rivera’s argument in a Thursday appearance.
“He said New York values are about money and they’re about the media. That’s an anti-Semitic trope from a hundred years. It’s been around for a very long time,” Toobin told Wolf Blitzer.
“Money and media is Jews. I mean this is just an old-fashioned, anti-Semitic stereotype, derogatory term and everybody understands it,” Toobin said when Blitzer argued that Cruz was referring to liberals.
Cruz has been facing heat for his New York-tied criticism of Donald Trump ahead of the state’s April 19 primary.
Trump and Kasich have used the comments as campaign fodder to sway the vote in the state.
Cruz defended the phrase Thursday, tying “New York values” to liberals like the New York City mayor and the state governor.
“It is people like Mayor Bill de Blasio. It is people like Gov. Cuomo,” Cruz said on “Good Morning America” Thursday.
Cruz is currently trailing Trump and Kasich in New York, according to recent polling.
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