Sean Hannity and Ted Cruz got into a somewhat heated exchange Tuesday over the 2016 GOP primary and the allocation of Republican delegates, as the Fox News anchor maintained that a significant number of conservative voters find the process confusing and the Texas lawmaker countered by saying it’s a non-story.
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“Sean, with all respect, that’s not what people are concerned about,” Cruz said after the host asked him to explain the process of getting a second ballot together for the Republican Party’s convention in July.
“I cannot help that the Donald Trump campaign does not seem capable of running a lemonade stand,” he added. “If you lose, don’t cry about it. Go back and learn how to win an election.”
The senator’s main primary opponent, Trump, has leveled charges of foul play against Cruz and the GOP for his failure to pick up delegates in several states, including Colorado and Wyoming.
“This whining from the Trump campaign is all silly,” Cruz said.
“I think most people would like to know how this works,” Hannity persisted. “It’s the integrity of the election question.”
Cruz batted down the question again.
“Sean, the only people asking this question are the hardcore Donald Trump supporters,” he said.
The talk radio host was not pleased.
“Why do you do this? Every single time – no! You got to stop! Every time I have you on the air, and I ask a legitimate question, you try to throw this in my face! I’m getting sick of it,” he said.
Hannity, who has caught flak for hosting Trump for more than three dozen allegedly softball interviews, defended his line of questioning, adding that he has hosted Cruz multiple times on both radio and television.
Cruz responded, “Sean, can I answer your question without being interrupted?”
“Go ahead,” an exasperated-sounding Hannity said.
“In the last three weeks, there have been five elections in five states: Utah, North Dakota, Wisconsin, Colorado and Wyoming. We’ve won all five. Over 1.3 million people voted in those five states. We won all five. All of this noise and complaining and whining has come from the Trump campaign because they don’t like the fact that they’ve lost five elections in a row. That Republicans are uniting behind our campaign. So they’re screaming on [the Drudge Report], and it’s getting echoed, this notion of voter-less elections. It is nonsense,” Cruz said.
“They are making it up,” he added. “Now, is a second component beyond the election, which is the individual delegates are elected by the people. Donald Trump’s campaign does not know how to organize on the grassroots. And so when the delegates are elected, conservative activists … show up and they elect delegates, and we’re winning those elections over and over and over again. The Donald Trump campaign doesn’t know what they’re doing.”
He also noted the several missteps that the Trump campaign has committed in its failure to court delegates, including when it sent out an emergency email to its supporters in Washington, D.C., when it actually meant to send the note to supporters in Washington state.
Hannity responded by maintaining that the average voter is simply ignorant about delegate elections and said it would be beneficial if someone did more to educate them.
