Immediately following President Barack Obama’s final State of the Union address on Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), a candidate for the 2016 GOP nomination, reacted to the speech and also weighed in on the state of his own contest in appearance on NBC.
Cruz, who did not attend the address on Capitol Hill, appeared from New Hampshire and explained to NBC’s “Nightly News” anchor Lester Holt why he feels he has been on the defensive as of late in the race, particularly regarding rhetoric from his opponent party front-runner Donald Trump.
“[Y]ou know, four weeks ago, just about every Republican candidate in the field was attacking Donald Trump. Today just about every Republican candidate is attacking me. And I think that suggests maybe something changed in the race. But i will note that Mr. Trump is relying on ultra-left-wing liberal law professors at Harvard to make the argument. And the same professors he’s relying on are major supporters for Hillary Clinton. And, you know, some folks are asking, gosh, ‘Why is it Hillary Clinton’s biggest supporters are echoing Donald Trump’s attacks?’ And perhaps it’s the case that, you know, we’ve seen the last couple of election Democrats were thrilled with the Republicans they ran against. Right now Donald Trump is losing to Hillary Clinton in national polls. Right now I’m beating Hillary Clinton in national polls. And were seeing Clinton allies amplifying the Trump attacks. It seems to me, we need a strong conservative who can win. We don’t need another four or eight years of the same policies with tonight’s state of the union. Stagnant economics and weakness to radical Islamic terrorism. We need strength.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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