Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz insists he will eventually be the Republican presidential nominee.
At a townhall, CNN’s Anderson Cooper asked Cruz, “When things started getting rough with Donald Trump, you said you were going to stick with that pledge because you’d given your word. I saw in an interview with my colleague, Sunlen Serfaty – I think it was just yesterday. You’re said you’re not in a habit of supporting people who attack your wife and attack your family. Do you still stand by the pledge to support whoever the nominee, even if it’s Donald Trump?”
Cruz replied:
Well, Anderson, as you mentioned, what I said is true. I’m not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and attacks my family. I think that is going beyond the line. I think our wives, I think our kids should be off limits. They don’t belong in the attacks.
And, listen, I’m not an easy person to tick off, but when you go after my wife, when you go after my daughters, that does it. And I think – I want this race to stay focused on policy and issues and solutions to the real problems facing America. That’s where I’m going to stay focused. But if other candidates don’t, I think that’s beyond the pale.
Cooper again pressed for an answer as to whether Cruz would back Trump if he was to win the nomination.
“Let me tell you my solution to that. Donald is not going to be the GOP nominee. We’re going to beat him,” Cruz simply replied.
Cooper joked his way into pressing the question, “My greatest failing is sometimes I don’t follow up, so not to give into that, I mean, I got to ask, I will assume by you saying you would not support him, that the answer is you would not support him if he is the nominee?”
Cruz affirmed that he had given his answer, then continued:
Listen, I think nominating Donald Trump would be an absolute train wreck. I think it would hand the general election to Hillary Clinton. Poll after poll after poll shows Donald Trump losing 10, 11, 12 points or more. I don’t want to see the White House given over to Hillary Clinton. I don’t want to see us lose the Senate and House, lose the Supreme Court for a generation, lose the Bill of Rights. I think nominating Donald Trump is a disaster, and so the answer to that is not to scream and yell and cry and attack him, the answer to that is to beat him at the ballot box. That’s what we’re working every day to do. It’s what we’re campaigning every day here in Wisconsin to do.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
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