Cruz: ‘I Like Donald Because He’s Brash, He’s Bold and He Speaks the Truth’
KELLY: “The tape cannot be more disturbing. Senator, let me shift gears with you now because you came to this studio after a meeting with Donald Trump which made, everybody are speculating. Why are the two of you met? Even he said earlier this morning, I don't know why are we meeting? Why were you meeting? What happened?”
CRUZ: “Well, Donald and I are friends. We have gotten together a number of times before he was candidate for president. We got together and visited today. You know, I like Donald because he is brash, he is bold and he speaks the truth. He stands up to Washington. It's what I have tried to do in my time of public office. And people are fed up with politicians, they're fed up with what I called the Washington cartel. Career politicians, Republicans and Democrats who get in bed with the lobbyist and special interests and I in particular salute Donald Trump for focusing on the problem of illegal immigration.”
KELLY: “Has he been too bombastic? Has he been too incendiary? This is what a lot of other Republicans have said that his messaging is not very good for the GOP brand.”
CRUZ: “Well, look, he speaks in colorful terms, he doesn't speak the way you or I speak. But an awful lot of republican 2016 candidates went out of their way to beat him with a stick. And I'm not going to join them. I'm not going to join them because I salute him for shining a light on the problem on illegal immigration, on the safety issues, on sanctuary cites.”
KELLY: “Now, some say you should be mad at him because he's stealing your numbers in the polls, that his numbers have gone up in direct proportion to the hit you have taken at some of the polls.”
CRUZ: “You know, what? People are fed up with career politicians in Washington and they are coming to me, they are coming to Donald Trump. You want to know how we are doing? We just announced our fundraising numbers. Out of 16 candidates in the republican primary, do you know who raised the most of all 16? We did. We raised $14.3 million hard money for the campaign. Second place is Jeb Bush at 11.3.”
KELLY: “You only have 10 billion to go to catch up with Donald Trump and his wealth.”
CRUZ: “That’s true enough.”
