Texas Sen. Ted Cruz said the media has artificially inflated Donald Trump’s projected delegate total to make Trump seem closer to securing the GOP nomination.
In a yet-to-air interview with Fox News, Cruz argued the Associated Press’ delegate tracker, which the Washington Examiner uses, is “bogus.”
“The AP’s numbers are bogus,” Cruz said. “Because what they’ve done is they’ve given all of the unbound delegates in Pennsylvania to Donald Trump. Those delegates are not his. That’s just reporters who want to run up his total. If you actually look at the bound delegates, Donald has about 50 fewer.”
A candidate must earn 1,237 delegates, a majority of delegates’ support, to secure the Republican nomination. The AP’s delegate tracker projects Trump with 994 delegates, including 41 unbound delegates.
But Trump thinks his delegate total is higher. Trump tweeted on Friday that he cracked the 1,000 delegate threshold, and said, “We will win on the first ballot and are not wasting time and effort on other ballots because system is rigged!”
Cruz’s full interview will air on “Hannity” in primetime. The Texas senator is barnstorming Indiana on Friday with his running mate, Carly Fiorina, in the hunt for delegates.
