Cruz on Whether Trump Is Unstoppable if He Wins Iowa: ‘Not Necessarily’
RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
TODD: "Chuck, good morning. Good to be with you."
CRUZ: "Your campaign I take it doesn’t believe the Des Moines register poll. You believe you’re ahead. What I found was interesting if you add up the other candidates that are going after evangelical voters, Ben Carson, Mike Huckabee, Rick Santorum, they’re 14% if you add it to the 23% you’ll be the runaway winner here. Is Ben Carson going to cost you Iowa?"
TODD: "Listen, at the end of the day this race was always going to come down to do conservatives unite. Ten months ago you and I visited right at the outset. If you’d told me ten months ago that the day before the Iowa caucuses we would be in a statistical tie for first place, I would have been thrilled and astonished. And we are thrilled and astonished. The question is going to come 36 hours from now, do conservatives come together? In past cycles what Washington has always wanted is to splinter and divide conservatives. If that happens — You’re worried about that a little bit."
CRUZ: "I’m always worried about it. The only way I know how to run — there’s the only joke, two ways to run, scared and unopposed. The only way I know how to run is scared. And we’re going to run hard every minute. You know, tomorrow we’re going to complete the full grass. We will have been to all 99 counties in Iowa. We are campaigning one after the other asking for the votes of the men and women of Iowa and focusing on the grass roots and ground game."
TODD: "You believe if trump wins here he’s unstoppable?"
CRUZ: "Not necessarily —"
TODD: "Well, you said it. Our friend caught you on tape there."
CRUZ: "Actually, what I said he could be. That Iowa his winning here would give him momentum. No doubt about it. He’s in a strong position in new Hampshire. And the people of Iowa if they want a strong principled conservative, the people of Iowa can impact that powerfully 36 hours from now. Monday night at 7:00 P.M. And, you know, I think the stakes are too high to get this wrong. You know, the most common sentiment you hear from people is they’re frustrated with Washington. They’re frustrated with politicians. They say one thing and do another. We can’t get burned again. And that frustration, the reason that I see conservatives uniting behind our campaign is they’re looking for a consistent conservative, someone they can trust to be a fiscal conservative, a social conservative and a national security conservative."
