Finally! Chuck Todd deflates Ted Cruz after he claimed he is the only conservative who can win
Chuck Todd allowed Ted Cruz to ramble somewhat too long about his viability for winning the Republican nomination. But he caught Ted Cruz off guard. As Cruz was singing his own praises, Chuck Todd interrupted him to confront his alternate state of reality. Todd reminded him that he came in third in the South Carolina primary. Cruz seemed momentarily stunned but then was allowed to continue rambling.
Donald Trump is likely to be the winner of the Republican primaries. For those who believe that is good for the Democrats, they better think again. Donald Trump can beat Hillary Clinton. He will seem new and she will seem like the same old Washington thing.
My personal belief is that having two candidates, Bernie Sanders vs Donald Trump, Americans will have real new choices. For sure, it will not be incrementalism in either direction. Given the choice, America is likely to choose the option that perfectly articulates in a believable manner policies that will help the poor and the middle-class.
Here is the text.
Ted Cruz: Last night, what we saw happen in South Carolina, particularly when you put Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina together, two things have happened. Number one, there is now only one strong conservative in this race who can win. And we see conservatives continually unite behind our campaign. But number two, for anyone who doesn’t believe that Donald Trump is the best candidate to go head to head with Hillary Clinton in November, and that’s about 70 percent of Republicans nationwide who don’t think Donald Trump is the right guy, our campaign is the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump and that can beat Donald Trump. So what we’re seeing is we’re seeing Republicans coming to us in incredible numbers, going to TedCruz.org–
Chuck Todd: But Senator, wait a minute.
Ted Cruz: –signing up, volunteering, contributing.
Chuck Todd: Senator, you finished third in a state with the highest evangelical turnout that we’ve seen yet. And you finished third. That sort of doesn’t support what you just said, that conservatives are coming together and rallying to your cause.
Ted Cruz: So Chuck, our path to victory from the beginning was always do well in the first four states, and then have a strong, strong night on Super Tuesday coming up on March 1st. In Iowa, everyone in the press said we couldn’t win. We won an overwhelming victory in Iowa. In New Hampshire, everyone in the press said, “A conservative couldn’t do well in a moderate New England state.” We won a strong third there. And then in South Carolina, we were effectively tied for second. A week ago, Donald was 20 points ahead. We closed that gap. And what we saw there, there were a number of very encouraging things. For one thing, we won young people in South Carolina. Our campaign was in first place with young people. By the way, we won young people in Iowa as well, and we were in second place with young people in New Hampshire. One of the things we’re seeing is young people who are optimistic, who want a future, want our constitutional rights, are coming to our campaign. And if you want to beat Donald Trump, you know, one of the clearest indications of who can beat Trump is Donald spends every waking moment attacking me. He doesn’t attack any other candidates, because his campaign views us as the only real threat to him. And that’s why we’re seeing so many people come around and say, “Listen, we want a real conservative. We don’t want a Washington dealmaker who will support Democrats and cut deals to grow government and give into the cronyism and corporate welfare.”
Chuck Todd: Very quickly, are you going to beat Donald Trump in Texas on March 1st?
Ted Cruz: I certainly hope so. We’re going to work hard to do so. And I’ve got to tell you, Texas, I love Texas, I can’t wait in a couple of days to be home to the great state.
Chuck Todd: Must win?
Ted Cruz: It’ll be wonderful to sleep in my own bed.
Chuck Todd: Must win I take it, for you?
Ted Cruz: Look, we hope we do well. I believe we will do well.