Mike Huckabee Slams Ted Cruz Meetings With Gay Hoteliers

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has launched a verbal salvo at a rival for the Republican presidential nomination, blasting Ted Cruz for hosting a fundraiser and accepting donations from openly gay hotel owners in New York City last year.

Huckabee fired off a tweet Wednesday linking to an April 2015 article in The New York Times about Cruz's campaign holding a fundraiser at an apartment owned by Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass, the gay owners of the Out NYC hotel.

Huckabee's implication, according to Washington politics outlet The Hill, is that Cruz, whose antigay views are so well-documented he was named The Advocate's 2014 Phobie of the Year, compromised those views in the pursuit of campaign funding.

The Hill also notes that Cruz has been on the defensive since launching his own attack on what he called the "New York values" of Republican front-runner Donald Trump January 12. In response, Trump called Cruz "a total hypocrite" and referred to his acceptance of donations from supporters of same-sex marriage like Reisner and Weiderpass.

Huckabee's critique is only the latest development in a long line of backlash sparked by Cruz's association with the out hoteliers. After it was revealed that the gay owners of the hotel -- who used to be a couple -- cut the antigay Republican presidential candidate a check for $2,700 (the maximum single donation allowed during the nominating process), several LGBT groups canceled their scheduled events at the Out NYC hotel. Weiderpass and Reisner have alternately apologized to and lashed out at LGBT people critical of their invitation to Cruz.