NEW YORK, May 3 (UPI) — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump alleged Tuesday that opponent Sen. Ted Cruz’s father is connected to the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, repeating information from a National Enquirer story.
Trump, speaking in a phone interview on Fox News on the day of the Indiana primary, said, “His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being — you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this, right prior to his being shot, and nobody even brings it up. They don’t even talk about that. That was reported, and nobody talks about it.”
The Enquirer ran a photo last month with a story titled “Ted Cruz’s Father — Caught With JFK Assassin” that claimed Rafael Cruz was photographed next to Oswald in 1963 handing out literature supporting former Cuban President Fidel Castro.
The Cruz campaign said the man in the picture is not Rafael Cruz, who was a supporter of Castro but later sided against communism.
A Cruz campaign spokeswoman blasted Trump’s tactics.
“Trump is detached from reality, and his false, cheap, meaningless comments every day indicate his desperation to get attention and willingness to say anything to do so,” Catherine Frazier said in a statement. “We are campaigning on jobs freedom and security while Trump campaigns on false tabloid garbage. And the media is willfully enabling him to cheapen the value of our democratic process.”
Trump also criticized Rafael Cruz for using the pulpit to seek evangelical votes for his son.
“I think it’s a disgrace that he’s allowed to do it,” Trump said. “I think it’s a disgrace that he’s allowed to say it,” he said, before touting his support from Jerry Falwell Jr. and other evangelical leaders.
“You look at so many of the ministers that are backing me, and they’re backing me more so than they’re backing Cruz, and I’m winning the evangelical vote,” Trump continued. “It’s disgraceful that his father can go out and do that. And just — and so many people are angry about it. And the evangelicals are angry about it, the way he does that.
“But I think it’s horrible,” he added. “I think it’s absolutely horrible that a man can go and do that, what he’s saying there.”
In a video clip aired by Fox News, the father says, “I implore, I exhort every member of the body of Christ to vote according to the word of God and vote for the candidate that stands on the word of God and on the Constitution of the United States of America. And I am convinced that man is my son, Ted Cruz. The alternative could be the destruction of America.”
Trump told Fox News that he’s actually “winning the evangelical vote.”
An NBC/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll released Sunday showed Trump with the support of 49 percent of likely Indiana Republican primary voters, compared with 34 percent for Cruz and 13 percent for Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Trump is up in polls in Indiana by an average of 9.3 percentage points, according to RearClearPolitics. This average includes eight polls taken April 13-29.
Watch the latest video at video.foxnews.com