O’Malley: Cruz more ‘unqualified’ to be president than Trump

Democratic presidential hopeful Martin O’Malley late Wednesday went on the offensive against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), calling him the most “unqualified” and “outrageous” candidate in the 2016 field.

{mosads}“I’d like to say that Donald Trump is the most outrageous and unqualified person ever to run for president,” O’Malley said at a rally in Nevada, according to NBC News. “But, really, that’s not fair to Ted Cruz.”

The former Maryland governor, a staunch gun-control advocate, took particular exception to Cruz’s solution to mass shootings.

“Cruz actually says that the answer to gun violence is more guns,” he said. “Senator, the answer to cancer is not more cancer, the answer to poverty is not more poverty and the answer to gun violence is not more guns.”

Fellow Democratic primary candidates Hillary Clinton and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) also spoke at the “Battle Born Battleground” caucus dinner, hosted by the Nevada Democratic Party and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who introduced the candidates.

Clinton, who is leading the field in early Nevada polls, was cordial toward her primary rivals at the dinner.

“They have a lot of good ideas and we share a lot of the same values,” she said. “And the differences between us pale compared to what we see on the other side.”

But she subtly jabbed at Sanders without naming him, saying she was the only candidate in the field who had taken time to raise money for state parties.

Sanders, who has recently poured significant resources into Nevada, also hit Clinton without naming her, saying “establishment politics and establishment candidates” would not draw sufficient voter turnout to win in the general election.

Clinton and Sanders both held rallies before the dinner, while O’Malley is expected to give a speech on Thursday morning.