Cruz on Politico’s ‘Secret Tape’: ‘Word for Word’ What I Said on Leno and Colbert

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

CRUZ: "In fact it was striking, Politico runs this banner headline, “Secret Tape!” when it was almost word for word what I said on Jay Leno and Stephen Colbert. It ain’t very secret —I know Colbert may not have a ton of viewers— but saying it on national TV, is not a great plan for keeping something secret.

I will say it is amusing reading the anonymous quote from advisors from other campaigns saying, “oh this is devastating, this is going to be a real problem,” “he says in private meetings the same thing he says publicly.”
It’s silliness, but no one should be surprised. The dynamic we’ve been seeing in this race has been conservatives uniting behind this campaign.

A few days ago, Donald Trump observed that he thought this race may well come down to a two man race between him and me. I think that’s entirely possible. No one should be surprised that the other candidates are attacking, and their response is to attack. Their response is to claim everything is a scandal that shows I’m really the embodiment of evil.
Okay fine, knock yourselves out. The voters are smarter than you give them credit for, and the voters can tell when other candidates are throwing rocks.

What tends to happen is, when other candidates get nasty, their support starts dropping. I think what the American people are looking for a leader that has a positive optimistic conservative vision.

So while others have been willing to throw rocks back and forth, I’m not going to.”