Sen. Ted Cruz said Monday that Donald Trump’s commitment to pick a conservative as the next Supreme Court justice was a “significant” change that allowed him to endorse Trump last week.
“A number of things have changed,” Cruz told radio host Glenn Beck Monday. “I’d say the most significant thing that changed was on Friday.”
On Friday, Trump’s campaign expanded their list of possible Supreme Court justices to 21, and committed to picking someone from that list.
“Now, that was a major shift,” Cruz said. “In the past, he put out a list of 11 potential nominees, and the campaign’s language had been [that] these are among the people who would be considered. On Friday, the campaign expanded that list to 21. It’s a very strong list.”
Cruz noted that Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, is on the list, and said Trump’s new commitment to only consider people on that list is “not an accident.”
“Several weeks ago when I sat down with Mike Pence in Washington, Mike asked me what would it take to get you on board, and for months, I had been telling Donald, I’ve been telling the campaign my greatest concern was protecting the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the rule of law,” Cruz said. “I told Donald that before the convention. I said that over and over and over again.
“And we talked about what could the campaign do to give any degree of reassurance on the Constitution and the rule of law, we discussed the Supreme Court as being one of the great checks protecting the Constitution and the rule of law, and the Trump campaign committing to nominate from that list was an important change,” Cruz added. “It gave me significant reassurance and helped me get to the point of saying yes.”
Cruz also took issue with being labeled as a member of the “Never Trump” movement, especially in the wake of his convention speech in Cleveland in which he urged people to vote their conscience, but didn’t endorse Trump. Cruz explained that his speech was supposed to be a defense of freedom and the Constitution, not a rebuke of Trump.
“One of the unfortunate things about the reaction to Cleveland is that for many who were watching, it was perceived that I was essentially embracing ‘Never Trump.’ I have never been a ‘Never Trumper,'” Cruz said. “In Cleveland, I was not articulating do not vote for Trump. I was articulating if you want my vote, defend freedom and defend the Constitution.”
Pro-Trump convention goers drowned Cruz’s speech in boos when he failed to endorse Trump, but Cruz defended his call to “vote your conscience.”
“What I said in Cleveland and would say today is the same thing. You should follow your conscience,” Cruz added. “I believe what I laid out in Cleveland is don’t stay home, come out and vote, vote your conscience and vote for candidates you trust to defend freedom and defend the Constitution.”
Over the weekend, Cruz declined to say whether he believes Trump is qualified to be president. Instead, he framed the decision as a binary choice, and said the better decision is to vote for Trump.
“What I said is this is a binary choice. I wish it were not a binary choice. As you know, I tried very, very hard … to prevent it from being a binary choice between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump,” Cruz said.
Beck was respectful but combative, and asked Cruz several times how he could vote for Trump after being unable to say Trump is qualified, and having called Trump a “pathological liar.”
“I disagree with you. I disagree with you strongly,” Beck said. “But I still respect you as a man, and you have done a lot of great work, and I hope you continue to do a lot of great work in the future.”
Cruz also didn’t deny a Sunday report that said he rented out his vast email list to the Trump campaign soon after losing the nomination to Trump.
