--- title: Republican Debate: Ted Cruz Refuses Trump's Legal Advice description: Ted Cruz won't be taking any legal advice from Donald Trump anytime soon canonical: https://time.com/4182043/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-legal-advice/ author: Daniel White article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-01-15T04:59:47.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T14:09:42.011Z article:section: Politics og:title: Ted Cruz Didn't Want Donald Trump's Legal Advice At the Republican Debate og:description: Cruz tries to debunk Trump's theories about his eligibility for office og:url: https://time.com/4182043/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-legal-advice/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9645228bf3b81404/6988794da988ca83aa6b6230/republican-presidential-debate-gop-photos-002.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: GOP 2016 Debate og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ted Cruz Didn't Want Donald Trump's Legal Advice At the Republican Debate twitter:description: Cruz tries to debunk Trump's theories about his eligibility for office twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9645228bf3b81404/6988794da988ca83aa6b6230/republican-presidential-debate-gop-photos-002.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ted Cruz Didn't Want Donald Trump's Legal Advice At the Republican Debate by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 15, 2016 4:59 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump speaks as Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, looks on during the Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C. Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump speaks as Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, looks on during the Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charleston, S.C.Rainier Ehrhardt—AP by [Daniel White](https://time.com/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Jan 15, 2016 4:59 AM UTC Ted Cruz won’t be taking any legal advice from Donald Trump anytime soon. When the [issue of his citizenship](http://time.com/4169050/how-trump-is-attacking-cruz/) came up at Thursday’s [Republican presidential debate](http://time.com/4179941/republican-debate-charleston-fox/?xid=homepage), Cruz immediately tried to downplay the issue, pointing to Trump’s possible insecurity over the closing gap between the two in the polls. Cruz was born in Canada to an American mother. “You know, back in September, my friend Donald said that he had had his lawyers look at this from every which way, and there was no issue there. There was nothing to this birther issue,” Cruz said to laughter. “Now, since September, the Constitution hasn’t changed — but the poll numbers have.” Trump said that Cruz was a liability if the Democrats ever started poking around his birth records. “Here’s the problem. We’re running. We’re running,” Trump said. “He does great. I win. I choose him as my vice presidential candidate, and the Democrats sue because we can’t take him along for the ride. I don’t like that. OK?” But Cruz dismissed the billionaire, saying “well, listen, I’ve spent my entire life defending the Constitution before the U.S. Supreme Court. And I’ll tell you, I’m not going to be taking legal advice from Donald Trump.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4182043/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-legal-advice/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4182043/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-legal-advice/"},"headline":"Ted Cruz Didn't Want Donald Trump's Legal Advice At the Republican Debate","datePublished":"2016-01-15T04:59:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:09:42.011Z","description":"Cruz tries to debunk Trump's theories about his eligibility for office","url":"https://time.com/4182043/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-legal-advice/","keywords":["Debates","2016 Election topic","ted cruz","Donald Trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9645228bf3b81404/6988794da988ca83aa6b6230/republican-presidential-debate-gop-photos-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9645228bf3b81404/6988794da988ca83aa6b6230/republican-presidential-debate-gop-photos-002.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"GOP 2016 Debate","caption":"Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump speaks as Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, looks on during the Republican presidential debate at the North Charleston Coliseum, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016, in North Charle","creditText":"Rainier Ehrhardt—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/debates/","name":"Debates"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4182043/republican-debate-donald-trump-ted-cruz-legal-advice/","name":"Ted Cruz Didn't Want Donald Trump's Legal Advice At the Republican Debate"}}]}] ```