Sen. Ted Cruz denied that he has made a decision to run for president in 2016 on Monday, a day after a report in National Journal quoted an unidentified Cruz confidant as saying, "At this point it's 90/10 he's in. And honestly, 90 is lowballing it," Politico reported.
Posting a statement on his Facebook page, the Texas GOP senator slammed the National Journal story for publishing anonymous comments attributed to an "adviser," who predicted that there's a 90 percent chance the conservative firebrand will seek the White House.
"Contrary to media reports this morning, Heidi and I have not made any decisions about political plans past the mid-term elections. Clearly we have an overzealous supporter out there making freelance comments, but to be clear, no decision has been made. Whoever this 'anonymous advisor' was, he or she had no authority to speak, and doesn't know what they're talking about," Cruz said in the Facebook post.
Until Monday's statement, suggestions of Cruz being a White House aspirant had not been pushed back by either the Texas senator or his aides.
"Cruz has been staffing up the political side of his operation for weeks now, though aides have said those moves are intended to create a platform for a potential Cruz presidential run rather than a definite presidential campaign machine," according to Politico.
During 2013's shutdown fight, Cruz gained recognition for willing to blast Democrats and defying his own Republican Party leaders, the Wall Street Journal reported. However, since the GOP had a joint U.S./Canadian citizenship due to being born in Alberta, Canada to an American mother, he formally renounced his allegiance to America's northern neighbor in 2014.
"No person except a natural born Citizen... shall be eligible to the Office of President," states Section 1 of Article Two of the Constitution.
In an appearance last week at the Values Voter Summit, the Texan made veiled references to the importance of the 2016 election and called for abolishing the Internal Revenue Service and repealing the Affordable Care Act, according to New York Daily News.
