Sen. Ted Cruz said on Tuesday he is willing to help Donald Trump prepare for his next debate with Hillary Clinton.
“I am happy to help,” Cruz said on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show Tuesday morning. “I have conveyed that to them.”
Cruz endorsed Trump on Friday, despite having given a speech at the Republican National Convention that was widely perceived as a snub of his erstwhile rival. He followed that endorsement with a battery of interviews to explain his decision to supporters, while also fulfilling the role of an enthusiastic good soldier.
The Texas Republican was quick to praise Trump’s debate performance. “I think he really went after Hillary, which was a good thing,” Cruz told Hewitt. “Anyone who is swooning at Hillary’s performance last night, that’s a pretty good indication that you’re a card-carrying member of the liberal media, especially in the first half hour. I think Donald very much had the upper hand over Hillary. Hillary was tentative and had no real answers. She was on the defensive the entire time.”
Cruz has taken criticism for endorsing Trump from various critics who suggest that he did so out of fear of being caught between angry Trump supporters and the GOP establishment when his 2018 Senate primary arrives. Glenn Beck, his most prominent conservative supporter during the primaries, was perhaps the harshest on Monday. “For the very first time, I heard Ted Cruz calculate,” Beck said. “And when that happened, the whole thing fell apart for me.”
But Cruz said that’s unfair. “I would note that the people who are throwing rocks are by and large people who have hated the fact that I have stood up to Washington and the Senate since I have been elected,” he said. “I hoped in Cleveland to help push our candidate, push our nominee to the right, to embrace freedom, to embrace the Constitution, because I think that’s the only way we win.”
And he declared victory on that score, noting Trump’s recently expanded list of potential Supreme Court nominees. “It is a terrific list, and the commitment on Friday they made that they would only nominate from that list, to me, was a big deal, and that was enough to move me over to a yes,” he said.
The next presidential debate will be held Oct. 9 in St. Louis, Mo.
