Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz ducked four times sharing details about his campaign’s Monday email offering “card-carrying deputy delegates” in a CNN town hall Wednesday night.
At the start of the hour-long event, CNN host Anderson Cooper asked the Texas senator about an email his campaign had sent supporters Monday, telling them they could become card-carrying deputy delegates if they shelled out $35.
“That makes it sound like they have some power, that they can come to the convention,” Cooper told Cruz.
The Tea Party-affiliated candidate said the message was meant to drive fundraising, but changed the subject to thanking GOP front-runner Donald Trump for helping push his drive for donations.
“I was very glad to see the Trump machine push out our fundraising email and let me say, Anderson, thank you to you and thank you to CNN,” Cruz said.
Cooper interrupted the candidate to bring the conversation back to whether Cruz was offering voters a buy-in to be a delegate.
“But why do you have to call it that?” Cooper asked.
Instead, Cruz praised his campaign for the 1.3 million contributions it has received since the onset of his campaign, prompting Cooper to again inquire why his team chose to market that idea of delegate cards to voters.
Cruz, again, doubled down on the amount of donations he has received, offering details about the average gift amount and number of benefactors before Cooper changed the topic.
