Cruz: Trump will be worse than Obama
On the day of the crucial Republican presidential primary in Indiana, Texas Senator Ted Cruz suggested GOP front-runner Donald Trump is worse than President Obama.
"He is perpetuating the greatest fraud in the modern history of politics," Cruz said of the billionaire. Describing Trump's supporters as "good people," he went on, "Donald Trump is cynically taking advantage of them. Cynically exploiting them."
The charge was reminiscent the day before at a campaign stop in Marion, Indiana, when Cruz walked up to a group of Trump supporters. "With all respect, Donald Trump is deceiving you," Cruz told one of the Trump supporters. "He is playing you for a chump."
In the interview, Beck brought up how he was fasting and praying for Cruz, which led into another broadside against Trump.
"Glenn, as you know, the fact that you believe in prayer and fasting and prayer is a subject of ridicule with the Trump campaign," Cruz responded.
"[Trump] views prayer as a sign of weakness," Cruz said, invoking the billionaire's July comment that he was "not sure" whether he had ever asked God for forgiveness. "And the people of Indiana can choose do you want that in the oval office. You think Obama has been bad with the contempt he has heaped on Christians? You ain't seen nothing yet compared to Donald J. Trump."
Other former Republican presidential candidates like former Florida Governor Jeb Bush who has endorsed Cruz have made similar comments. In March, Bush said at a rally in South Carolina, the United States would be "worse off than we are now, and we're really bad off right now."
Cruz supporters at a Tuesday campaign stop in Westfield, Indiana were divided on whether they would support Trump.
"I don't know if I could," Stacey Adelmin told CBS News. "I don't believe in the principles he's espousing. I think he would be dangerous for our country actually. It would be very hard."
Another Cruz supporter at the Westfield event, Sanford Horn, felt differently. "If it comes down to a trump Clinton November election yes, I will support Donald trump without question...What concerns me are the "never Trump" people because if they consider themselves conservative, or Republican, and they are never Trump then they are willing to put Hillary Clinton in the White House."
In the past, the Texas senator hinted that he liked President Obama personally more than the bombastic billionaire Trump. When asked by late night host Jimmy Kimmel in late March who he disliked more, Cruz responded, "I dislike Obama's policies more, but Donald is a unique individual."
Later in the day, Cruz once again compared Trump unfavorably to Obama after the billionaire suggested that Cruz's father was an associate of Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald.
"This man is a pathological liar," Cruz said of Trump. "He doesn't know the difference between truth and lies. In a pattern, his response is to accuse everyone else of lying. The man cannot tell the truth but he combines it with being a narcissist. Donald Tump is such a narcissist that Obama says, 'Dude, what's your problem?'"