The New York Times reported that Ted Cruz borrowed money from his Goldman Sachs investment account to finance his Senate campaign, then didn’t disclose it. Is their story correct? Let’s see.
Caffeinated Thoughts explains:
The New York Times “broke” a story yesterday about a Goldman Sachs loan that Ted and Heidi Cruz obtained during his run for U.S. Senate that wasn’t reported properly on an FEC filing. I’vedefended Marco Rubio when New York Times fired garbage at him, and I’ll do the same with Cruz.
This story was one *discovered* from public disclosure forms, and it is a story that alreadyran in 2013. So the New York Times didn’t run any new news here. All they did was run some opposition research that a rival campaign gave them. *Great* journalism.
This is a non-story. Beyond the fact it is rehashed news taken from public records here are a couple reasons why there’s nothing there.
First, The loan was disclosed. It may not have been on the right FEC form at the right time, but it was made public and it was made public before Cruz’s runoff election against then Texas Lt. Governor Dewey Dewhurst.
The Caffeinated Thoughts article has a public, federal reporting document filed on July 9th, 2012, that has the following entry: “Goldman Sachs Margin Loan”. So this loan was not hidden and undisclosed and secret and scandalous. Cruz simply made an error and didn’t disclose it on another public form.
Newsflash: borrowing on margin is normal
For those of you who invest, like me, you’ll know that anyone can borrow money on margin from their investment brokerage account, although it is not recommended. Goldman Sachs is an investment broker, and you can borrow money on margin if you have a brokerage account with them. You can do the same thing with E-Trade, Ameritrade, ScottTrade, etc. This is not some great mystery. This is a margin loan given to you by your investment brokerage firm, with collateral provided by your investment securities.
Anyway, let’s see Cruz explain it in his own words.
First, on CNN:
Second, here is Cruz’s 2-minute answer from last night
Now, that’s a simple answer that anyone can understand, but the left wants to make it seem sinister and sneaky. There is no question that the left, including the mainstream media, has it in for Cruz. The radically leftist New Republic entitled this story “Ted Cruz Defends His Undisclosed Loan from Goldman Sachs”. The radically leftist New York Times called it “Ted Cruz Didn’t Report Goldman Sachs Loan in a Senate Race”. Associated Press “Cruz Failed To Disclose Goldman Loan On Reports”. Secular Talk “Ted Cruz Took $500k From Goldman Sachs & Didn’t Disclose it”. They don’t have time to report on any of the scandals of the Obama administration – especially Hillary Clinton. But they do have time to make a mountain out of a mole hill about a simple thing like borrowing on margin.
I feel bad for Cruz in the way that he has to answer these deceptive attacks from the leftist media, and then again from Marco Rubio and Donald Trump, who parrot the stories they read in the leftist media. These things are easily explained, but you have to actually understand how real life works. It just depresses me when I think about how hard it is for an honest man to run for office in a world like this. You can’t fight back against these smears… the minute you respond to one, there’s another dozen lies to answer. It’s just depressing.
The best part of the debate
However, I will end this post on a high note. The highlight of the debate last night was that Cruz finally defended himself from Trump’s attacks.
Here is their entire exchange on Trump’s birther argument against Cruz:
Cruz graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law. He clerked for J. Michael Luttig in the 4th District Court of Appeals, then Chief Justice Earl Rehnquist at the U.S. Supreme Court. Two conservative justices. As Solicitor General of Texas, he defended religious liberty, gun rights and other conservative issues in front of the Supreme Court. The man understands Constitutional law.
Here is Frank Luntz’s focus group responding to the exchange:
You can read an assessment of the exchange in the radically leftist New York Times, of all places – which actually gets it right for a change. Headline is “Ted Cruz, Once Dismissed, Emerges as a Slashing Debater”. I’m not kidding.
In any case, I responded to the charge in detail here, citing legal experts on both sides of the political spectrum.
WINTERY KNIGHT 
I had the pleasure of meeting Senator Ted Cruz twice before he won his Senate seat, and then once since then. He was very personable and friendly on all occasions, despite how the media says he is “unlikeable”. I got to sit next to his dad, and at his table, at a luncheon honoring the 25 best lawyers in Texas over the past 25 years, and that included conservatives and liberals, and he was honored for his work. He is a staunch defender of the Constitution as written, and as the Founders intended it to be applied.
There’s no doubt he’s the most conservative candidate with regard to the Constitution among any of the top seven candidates. One beauty of the Constitution is that it includes an amendment process – that’s the moral way to change it; getting judges to change the interpretation does not respect the will of the people nor the rule of law. Ted Cruz would support the Constitution as written, and that would be a welcome change.
By the way, I found your blog via a retweet from one of your Twitter followers, and I’m glad I did. Your comments about the “feminizing” of the contemporary American church, as well as the shift in expectations that men and women have developed for marriage and other relationships are spot on, even though I’m sure they strike a lot of folks as too blunt. But then again, “bluntness” and “directness” is another one of those aspects of Christianity that have been softened into “nuance”. Cheers.
LikeLike
Thanks for the comment, Jeff. I like that his Dad is conservative, too.
And with respect to church, it does seem like we focus too much on feelings and compassion, not enough on boundaries and evidence.
LikeLike
….”There is no question that the left, including the mainstream media, has it in for Cruz.”.
Which means, of course, that he is a good, honest man with integrity, who has ideas that can make this a better country. It’s a badge of honour to be hated by the media. But sadly, we live in a country full of low information voters who are influenced by these soundbites.
I second Jeff Swans excellent comments above. I also met Ted Cruz a few weeks ago, and listened to his father speak at a Family Foundation dinner in Richmond, VA. Ted is a kindhearted, humble, and exceedingly likable man. It’s no wonder, when you meet his father who is genuinely heroic in every sense of the word.
LikeLike