Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) requested a meeting with Donald Trump yesterday, with Trump agreeing yet telling MSNBC Wednesday morning he had “absolutely no idea” what Cruz wanted to talk about.
“He called me, he wanted to meet, and we are going to meet,” Trump said.
So Cruz went to sit down with Trump behind closed doors. What happened?
“Well, Donald and I are friends,” Cruz told Fox last night. “We have gotten together a number of times before he was candidate for president. We got together and visited today. You know, I like Donald because he is brash, he is bold and he speaks the truth. He stands up to Washington. It’s what I have tried to do in my time of public office. And people are fed up with politicians, they’re fed up with what I called the Washington cartel. Career politicians, Republicans and Democrats who get in bed with the lobbyist and special interests and I in particular salute Donald Trump for focusing on the problem of illegal immigration.”
“He speaks in colorful terms, he doesn’t speak the way you or I speak. But an awful lot of Republican 2016 candidates went out of their way to beat him with a stick. And I’m not going to join them.”
Cruz was asked about their respective polls positions. Trump leads usual front-runner Jeb Bush in the latest USA Today/Suffolk poll with 17 percent; Cruz was fourth with 6 percent. In the Real Clear Politics polling average, Trump is second and Cruz is eighth.
“People are fed up with career politicians in Washington and they are coming to me, they are coming to Donald Trump,” Cruz said.
Outside of the meeting, Cruz told reporters he didn’t ask for Trump’s endorsement. “No, we had a conversation about the race. He’s running, I’m running, and we both agreed that we started out as friends, and will end as friends,” he said.
“I’m a big fan of Donald’s, and we talked about the race,” he said. “We talked about how we are each enjoying it and how there is a need for more truth tellers.”
Trump, prolific on Twitter, didn’t note anything about the meeting.
Politico noted that Trump has changed his tune since March on Cruz’s eligibility to run for president. “It’s a hurdle. Somebody could certainly look at it very seriously. He was born in Canada. If you know and when we all studied our history lessons, you are supposed to be born in this country, so I just don’t know how the courts will rule on it,” he said back then.
On Wednesday, Politico asked him — hours before the Cruz meeting — about the Texas senator’s eligibility. “I don’t know. I mean I haven’t looked at it. I have not looked at it at all,” Trump replied.
Rick Perry was asked on CNN what he made of the get-together.
“Well, everybody gets to pick with who they hang out with. So I have no idea what’s going on,” Perry said. “I’m focused on talking to the American people about the only person that’s going to be standing on that stage that actually has done something about border security, not just talked about it.”
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