Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he didn’t intentionally interrupt a speech by Ted Cruz surrogate Glenn Beck, but Trump said Wednesday he didn’t mind much that it happened.
During an interview Wednesday on Fox News, Trump acknowledged that he showed up at a caucus site in Nevada the previous day and saw the conservative radio host giving a pro-Cruz speech to “thousands of people” there to vote. But he said he didn’t know beforehand that Beck was even there.
“When I walked, in I saw he was on the podium and there were thousands of people in the room, not too many people listening to him, he’s not a good guy to listen to, frankly, he’s boring,” Trump said. “And so when I walked in, everybody saw me, the place went crazy and they all ran away from him, his whole crowd.”
Trump said Beck was left “standing up there talking to nobody and he steamed out of the room. And I didn’t do it on purpose but I happened to be there.”
Video of the moment that Trump interrupted Beck’s speech was widely circulated Tuesday on the Internet, as the caucuses were still underway.
In one video, Beck is seen addressing a group of people. Some of them begin cheering at the sight of Trump walking in the door, which caught the attention of most of the rest of the crowd that had been watching Beck. Realizing it was Trump, the crowd drifted over to greet him, even as Beck was still talking. Beck then wrapped up his speech with a final push for Cruz, who Beck has endorsed.
Beck has frequently used his radio and online TV show to criticize Trump, who Beck has accused of being an opportunist and insufficiently conservative. Trump has replied in kind, saying that Beck is bitter because Trump hasn’t appeared on any of Beck’s shows.
Trump handily won the Nevada causes, his third victory in a row, following big wins in South Carolina and New Hampshire.
