A Donald Trump-Ted Cruz unity ticket seems less likely now that Cruz told the Good Morning America audience on Monday that he has “zero interest, whatsoever” in being Trump’s pick for vice-president.
Bonnie Pointer, who was described as an undecided voter from Vacaville, California, asked Cruz via video, “Would you accept being Donald Trump’s Vice President?”
Cruz thanked Bonnie for her question saying, “Let me just answer very simply, I have zero interest, whatsoever, in doing it.”
He went to explain his reasoning:
And there are a lot of reasons, but perhaps the simplest is, if Donald is the nominee, Hillary wins, Hillary wins by double digits and I don’t think there’s anything we can do to change that. And the stakes are too high. That’s why nationwide 65 to 70 percent of Republicans recognize Donald Trump loses to Hillary. It’s why we’re seeing Republicans uniting behind our campaign. It’s why out of the 17 Republican candidates who started this race, five of them are supporting our campaign. We’ve been supported now by [former Texas Gov.] Rick Perry, by [Sen.] Lindsey Graham, by [former Florida Gov.] Jeb Bush, by [Wisconsin Gov.] Scott Walker, by Carly Fiorina. Now all of us started out as opponents, we’ve come together and united because we’ve gotta win, and if Donald’s the nominee he loses. If I’m the nominee I beat Hillary Clinton. We’re beating her in key swing states, we’re beating her with independents, we’re beating her with young people and we’ve got to win. We can’t do with another four or eight more years on the road we’re on right now.
A Fox News poll released last week showed Trump losing to Clinton by seven percent in a hypothetical one-on-one race. In that poll 20 percent of Republicans would hypothetically support Clinton. However, that is before a Republican nominee has been chosen and while Trump was shown to be widening his lead over Cruz and Kasich among Republican voters. Cruz fairs better in the potential matchup, coming in tied with Clinton. Ohio Gov. John Kasich polls nine points ahead of Clinton in the head-to-head scenario.
An IBD/TIPP poll released in early April showed a hypothetical Trump-Clinton race favors Clinton by 12 points. A Cruz-Clinton matchup also favored Clinton, but by five percent.
A January Reuters poll showed Trump running neck-and-neck with Clinton. That same poll showed Trump crushing Clinton among white working class voters.
Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.