Monday night in Iowa, Ted Cruz argued that there is no Republican “war on women” because when he was at Princeton in the early ‘90s there was a condom machine in his bathroom.
The GOP presidential hopeful explained that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton knows she can’t win a general election running on the Obama economy or her stance on “partial birth abortions,” so instead she spreads the nasty lie that conservatives don’t love condoms.
“Now listen, I have been a conservative my entire life. I have never met anybody, any conservative who wants to ban contraceptives,” Cruz said. “Jiminy Cricket! Last I checked we don’t have a rubber shortage in America. When I was in college we had a machine in the bathroom, you put .50 cents in and voilà!”
Pro-choice voters might argue that the “war on women” is more about the way Republican state lawmakers have drastically reduced access to abortion than it is about whether or not a young Ted Cruz took advantage of his dormitory’s rubbers. But on Monday night, the Texas senator kept the focus of the debate over women’s rights where it should be — on the sexual habits of a middle-aged man.
Lest Iowans think his admiration for condoms was merely an adolescent phase, Cruz made clear that he is a proud user to this very day, CNN reports. “As I noted, Heidi and I, we have two little girls,” he said. “I’m very glad we don’t have 17.”
