Rick Perry Endorses Ted Cruz for President

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: 

BRZEZINSKI: "Sir, why don’t you take it away. Who are you endorsing?"
PERRY: "Mika, good to be with you. Thank you. Senator Cruz and I have spent some quality time together over the course of the last 60 days and I really didn’t know Ted Cruz, he was the solicitor general, I was the governor, I had a care kick tour of him, here is what the media said, here was the media narrative, here was the political lens that I saw him through and what I found after I spent some time with him both in direct conversation and then on the phone over the course of the last month is this is a different person by a substantial margin. This is probably the best listener that I have ever been around in the political world. Truly listens, he is not just being quiet, he’s processing."
BRZEZINSKI: "I don’t think people on Capitol Hill thinks he listens very much. I don’t think he’s popular on Capitol Hill, I’m wondering if it’s lonely on that island you are on."
PERRY: "Courage isn’t something he’s a lacking in. Mika, I will remind you back my first term as governor, my first session as governor I vetoed 82 bills which was a record. People say you have ruined your political life, it’s all over with, you can’t get along with the house and Senate, but what it was doing, it was setting a marker so that people understood this is what I believe in and if we will work together and not go outside the bounds of this then, you know, I can work with you. I think the senator was doing the same thing. From time to time you’ve got to hit the mule up the side of the head with a 2 X 4 to get its attention."
WALLACE: "It’s not a morning with the governor from Texas without a mule reference. I remember your speech —"
PERRY: "Or a donkey reference."
BRZEZINSKI: "Exactly."
WALLACE: "— With add mirror operation for his courage and the risk you took. You took on Donald Trump in the fall, you called him a cancer on conservatism and I wonder if today’s endorsement of senator Cruz is more a rejection and a continued protest against trump or are you really enthusiastic about Cruz?"
PERRY: "I’m really enthusiastic about this man, Ted Cruz. He will be ready to be commander in chief on day one, as a former air force pilot, as a person who has a real passion for the veterans and the active duty military, we talked about that a lot. We talked about his understanding that America’s interests have to be protected, that our allies have to be stood up for around the world, but that we are not in the nation building business. We are not going to be going out, getting involved in places in the world. And Ted understands that better than — as well as anyone on the right, let me put it that way. And he understands and he knows what he doesn’t know. I can’t tell you what a virtue that is for an individual that’s going to be the commander in chief. Our government is incredibly complex. He will have people around him who truly understand all of these different aspects of government, empower them and allow them to go and drive and evolve that power back out of Washington, D.C. He understands the tenth amendment. He is not interested in consolidating more power in Washington, D.C. Push it back out to the states, let this country get back to being this powerful competitive place where the states compete against each other and people will figure out where they want to go live and this one size fits all government we can get away from."
BRZEZINSKI: "Governor Rick Perry thank you for coming on the show this morning."