Cruz: ‘I Am Grateful Donald Is Running; He Has Helped Focus the Discussion’ on Border

HEMMER: “Carter just said in that testimony, every recommendation he’s taken to the president, he’s taken him up on it. OK. I’ve got a number of the topics to go through. This sort of dominates the news for this hour. And a major topic. You also are pushing for a ban on refugees coming into the U.S. and allowing governors to have a stake in that. You disagree with Donald Trump when he said you should ban all Muslims coming into the United States.”
CRUZ: “I — I —“
HEMMER: “You disagree on his position but you will not criticize him. Why not?”
CRUZ: “I don’t think it’s the right approach. But the approach that I do think is right, is legislation that I’ve introduced in the United States Senate. You know, yesterday, I did a press conference in Washington with Texas Governor Greg Abbott. And the two of us together, we talked about three different pieces of legislation I’ve introduced to address the crisis we’re facing right now. The first is legislation I’ve introduced that would put a three-year moratorium on refugees coming from countries where ISIS or al Qaeda control a substantial amount of territory. And the reason is simple, Obama’s own FNI has told Congress they cannot vet these refugees to determine whether or not they’re ISIS terrorists. The first obligation should be protecting safety of American citizens. So this puts in place a three-year moratorium. The second piece of legislation is legislation I introduced just yesterday, that would allow governors to opt out of receiving refugees if the federal government is not doing sufficient job of screening them to make sure they’re not terrorists. Some 30 governors have joined Texas Governor Greg Abbott in saying they don’t want —“ 
HEMMER: “And mostly Republicans and some Democratic governors too.”
CRUZ: “Yes.”
HEMMER: “As which discussed in the events in France. But back to the Trump question now — you may not address him specifically but this is how he talked about you Monday night, in South Carolina.”
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TRUMP: “The people that give these millions of dollars to this horrible, corrupt PACs, they’re corrupt. (Cheering and Applause) They totally control Bush and Rubio and I won’t say Cruz because he’s been very nice to me. No, but he’s been nice. I can’t — he’s got to hit me first. Once he hits me I promise you, I promise you.” (Laughter and Applause) 
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HEMMER: “When does that change, senator?”
CRUZ: “Listen from the beginning my approach, not just to Donald Trump but to all of the candidates, is not to engage in personal insults and attacks. You know, you think of the first couple of debates — that they just descended into food fights, a personal insults back and forth, and if you —“ [crosstalk]
HEMMER: “[indecipherable] very effective comeback, that got a lot of headlines. And maybe the more appropriate question is, does it change?”
CRUZ: “Look, I like and respect Donald Trump. I don’t anticipate that changing at all. And my approach —“ 
HEMMER: “No.”
CRUZ: “ — the reason why I won’t get had engaged in personal insults and attacks, I don’t think the American people care about a bunch of politicians bickering like schoolchildren. What they’re interested in is positive, real solutions to the great challenges facing this country. That’s why I’m working to lead on defending this nation against ISIS. On standing up to radical Islamic terrorism. On stopping President Obama’s plan to bring tens of thousands of Syrian-Muslim refugees.” 
HEMMER: “But no critique on Trump.”
CRUZ: “I’m grateful Donald Trump is running. And I’ll tell you what, he’s helped focus the discussion on securing the border. Border security is national security. I think that’s been very beneficial for the race.”