For perhaps the first time, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz detailed the circumstances under which he would refuse to support Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for president.
Cruz playfully said if Trump shoots someone, then the senator would change his mind.
“I’ll give you one example where I would no longer support Donald Trump, if for example he were to go out on Fifth Avenue and shoot someone I would not be willing to support Donald Trump,” Cruz told reporters in Illinois.
Cruz was referencing Trump’s suggestion that he could shoot someone in New York City and not lose any support.
An MSNBC personality repeatedly asked Cruz when he might be willing to back away from supporting the GOP nominee, and the senator reiterated his intention to keep his word and back his party’s nominee.
Republican presidential contenders’ support for their party’s nominee has come back into the spotlight after Florida Sen. Marco Rubio’s comments to reporters this weekend. Rubio said it’s getting harder everyday to willingly support the GOP nominee as the prospect of Trump winning appears more possible.
Cruz, however, sought to turn the conversation away from Trump as the party’s front-runner and toward the billionaire’s donations to Illinois Democrats, namely Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and imprisoned Rod Blagojevich, a former governor.
“If you like the abuse of power from Chicago Democrats, then Donald Trump is great for you,” Cruz said to reporters in Rockford. “It is rather striking that my leading competitor for the Republican nomination, Donald Trump, has been one of the key funders of those liberal Democrats imposing failed policies on the people of Illinois. … Donald Trump thinks the Democratic Party of Cook County is an institution he wants to support, presumably because he supports their corruption and he supports their policies.”
Cruz has five public campaign events scheduled in Illinois on Monday. The Land of Lincoln votes on Tuesday.
