Trump on Cruz-Kasich Alliance: "It Shows Desperation"
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Donald Trump fired back at his remaining rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, after they announced they would coordinate their campaigns in the remaining primaries in an attempt to limit the number of delegates acquired by Trump.
In an interview with Rich Zeoli on Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, Trump said it exemplifies the failings of their campaigns.
"They don't even like each other. They call each other names. I said that's interesting because I think they hate each other actually. I'm on the stage with them. I watch. I think I see better than anybody else. I think the first immediate thing is collusion. Collusion is illegal in most instances. Here politicians are allowed to collude. What is shows is weakness. It shows desperation."
He stated he expects the combining of Cruz and Kasich's efforts to actually work against them, creating a backlash that will deliver him even more delegates.
"This really shows that it's a rigged system. I've been watching the different shows on television, reading the papers and, really, I think it's backfiring. It's making people really angry. I've been talking about it's a rigged system with the delegates where I'll win Louisiana and end up getting less than a guy that I beat easily. I said this is a rigged system. It has nothing to do with the voters. It's like a camouflage, the fact that they're voting."
Trump also made clear that, with the help of delegates from Pennsylvania, he expects to lock up the GOP nomination on the first ballot of convention voting.
"The thing that I hear is different about Pennsylvania than almost every other place is that most delegates, on both sides, feel a moral obligation to, on the first ballot, cast their votes for the person that won the state. That's all I ask for. I don't need the second ballot because I think we're going to win on the first. Cruz is going around trying to get all these second and third ballots. Could you imagine if it ever did go to a second or third ballot and he won and yet I got four or five million votes more than him and I was four or five hundred delegates up on him and then he ends up winning? It would be a sham."
He also promised that Pennsylvania will be one of the states the benefits most from a Trump presidency.
"We're going to bring back your business. The business is being ripped apart in Pennsylvania. You look at what's going on with steel. You look at what's going on with coal. Coal is just being decimated, the miners, the jobs and we're going to bring back clean coal and not just send it to China. We send to our coal to China. They use it but we can't use it. We're going to bring back our manufacturing, which is down 45-50 percent in Pennsylvania. It's crazy. It's just crazy. It's been all taken out by China, by companies moving to Mexico and I'm going to stop them."