Ted Cruz panders to pro-slavery Iowa radio host: Saying "anchor babies" isn't offensive, it's "speaking truth to power"

Learning that a particular radio personality has endorsed slavery as a potential solution to the immigration problem would deter most presidential hopefuls from going on his program, but as Miranda Blue reports, Ted Cruz isn't most candidates.

Earlier this week, conservative kingmaker Jan Mickelson proposed that "people who are here illegally...be owned by the state" and "compelled" to build Donald Trump's "big, beautiful, powerful wall" to prevent more undocumented immigrants from entering the United States.

Senator Cruz didn't venture that far into the fringe, but he did offer his increasingly mainstream thoughts -- at least among Republicans -- about the limitations of the 14th Amendment and the "anchor babies" it allegedly grants citizenship.

The term itself, Cruz said, shouldn't be considered offensive. "There is power to simply speaking the truth, to not engaging in this politically correct nonsense and double-speak."

"Speak honestly and candidly about the challenges we face," he continued, "whether it’s the assault on marriage — and we have the Supreme Court and the radical left trying to forcibly redefine marriage and to tear down what has been a fundamental building block of our society from time immemorial — or when it comes to, on immigration."

"You know, it is an open legal question whether changing birthright citizenship could be done through statute or could be done through a constitutional amendment," Cruz argued. "There are serious constitutional scholars on both sides of that argument. As a policy matter, I think it is basic common sense that we shouldn’t be incentivizing illegal immigration, that it doesn’t make sense to provide rewards for people to break the law and come here.”

“In the end, I think we should pursue whatever means will be effective in ending birthright citizenship."

He later thanked Trump for entering the race and forcing "the mainstream media to talk about illegal immigration," as for years he's felt like his was a voice in wilderness. "I've been leading the fight," he said, "actually been standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Steve King," the Iowa representative who believes that undocumented immigrants sport "calves the size of canteloupes" and that he's more Hispanic and Latino than HUD secretary Julian Castro.

Listen to the entire interview below via Right Wing Watch.