Sen. Ted Cruz would not say, despite repeated questioning, whether he would support Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for president.
“I believe that if the Republican Party nominates Donald Trump, we will lose to Hillary,” the senator from Texas said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
What followed was a five-minute back-and-forth in which Cruz repeatedly dodged the same question posed by NBC anchor Chuck Todd.
“I recognize that many in the media would love for me to surrender to Donald Trump. The media has given $2 billion of free advertising to [Trump]. . . . I am going to beat Donald Trump. We are headed to a contested convention, and I am not willing to concede this country,” Cruz said.
“Let the record show you have not taken a position on whether you can support Trump if he’s the nominee,” Todd said.
Cruz, appearing on all five political talk shows on Sunday morning, argued that his campaign is seeing “incredible” momentum in Indiana, which holds its GOP primary Tuesday, after an endorsement from Gov. Mike Pence (R).
At the same time, Cruz sought to play down the importance of Indiana’s primary on Tuesday after a new NBC News-Wall Street Journal-Marist poll showed Trump with a commanding lead in the contest.
“Regardless of what happens in Indiana, Donald Trump is not getting to 1,237,” Cruz told “Fox News Sunday,” referring to the number of delegates needed to win the nomination on the first convention ballot.
“No one is getting to 1,237. We are headed to a contested convention. I’m going to have a ton of delegates at that convention. Donald is going to have a ton of delegates at that convention. It’s going to be a battle to see who can earn a majority.”
The senator also addressed former House Speaker John A. Boehner’s recent comment that Cruz is “Lucifer in the flesh,” telling CNN that Boehner “kind of let out his inner Trump.”
“I don’t know John Boehner. Maybe he and I have said 50 words to each other,” Cruz said on Fox.