Ted Cruz said Sunday that he's prepared to support any Republican in this year's presidential election -- even if the party nominates a candidate he believes would lose to Hillary Clinton..
Appearing
on "State of the Union with Jake Tapper," the Texas senator once again
insisted that he is the best alternative to Donald Trump, saying that
65% of GOP primary voters agree that the real estate mogul is not the
best candidate to face Clinton.
"You
know, we've seen now that there's only one candidate that has beaten
Donald Trump and that can beat Donald Trump," said Cruz, who gave Trump
his only loss of the season thus far in the Iowa caucuses.
Cruz
is the favorite to win the Texas primary, one of several states voting
this week on "Super Tuesday." Polls show that Trump is leading in most
of the other states voting that day.
Cruz
told Tapper he hopes "those 65% of Republicans that don't think Donald
can beat Hillary will continue to unite behind our campaign."
If
Trump were to clinch the nomination, Cruz believes the billionaire
would "probably" lose to Clinton. Cruz said that Trump's past praise of
Clinton, as well as his donation to the Clinton Foundation, would
neutralize any GOP attacks against the former secretary of state.
Cruz
and Marco Rubio have ratcheted up their attacks on the Republican
frontrunner in recent weeks, as the prospect of Trump winning the
nomination grows ever more likely. The two senators took turns ripping
Trump at last week's debate.
On Sunday, Cruz suggested that a Trump presidency would be chaotic.
"Listen,
if Donald becomes president, who the heck knows what he would do? Even
Donald doesn't know what he would do," Cruz said. "And I think the
challenges facing this country are too grave to roll the dice and risk
losing the Supreme Court for a generation, risk yet more economic
stagnation and risk on foreign policy allowing radical Islamic terrorism
to continue to rise and threaten America."
Despite that concern, Cruz didn't balk when asked if he'd support Trump in a general election.
"I will support the Republican nominee," Cruz said. "Period. The end."
But as he hit the Sunday shows, Cruz unloaded on Trump, hammering him for refusing to release his tax returns.
Cruz became the first Trump opponent to invoke his history of dealings with mafia families
on construction deals in an appearance on ABC's "This Week" as he
questioned why the real estate mogul won't release those returns.
"There
have been multiple media reports about Donald's business dealings with
the mob, with the mafia. Now maybe his tax returns show that those
business dealings are a lot more extensive than has been reported," Cruz
said.
He pointed to Trump's dealings
with the mob-controlled S&A Concrete to build his Trump Plaza
condos. Anthony "Fat Tony" Salerno, head of the Genovese crime family,
and Paul Castellano, the don of New York's Gambino family, controlled
S&A.
He also built Trump Tower out of concrete, instead of steel, at a time when the mafia controlled much of the concrete industry.
"Maybe that's what his tax returns show," Cruz said.
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