What Cruz really thinks of Trump
Sen. Ted Cruz, who for months last year embraced Donald Trump as a force for good in the Republican presidential race, unburdened himself as never before on Tuesday in a searing, personal barrage.
"I'm going to do something I haven't done for the entire campaign," he told reporters in Evansville, Ind. "I'm going to tell you what I really think of Donald Trump."
Trump is a "pathological liar," he said — an "utterly amoral" man and a "narcissist at a level I don't think this country has ever seen."
He attacked Trump's history of adultery, his penchant for conspiracy theories and his past disparaging Twitter posts about Heidi Cruz, Cruz's wife.
In a statement, Trump called Cruz "a desperate candidate trying to save his failing campaign" and growing "more and more unhinged" amid a string of losses.
Hours earlier, Trump had said in a Fox News interview that Cruz's father Rafael had associated with Lee Harvey Oswald not long before the assassination of John F. Kennedy. He cited a story from the National Enquirer, which the Cruz campaign has called filled with errors.
"I guess I should go ahead and admit, yes, my dad killed JFK," Cruz said dryly. "He is secretly Elvis, and Jimmy Hoffa is buried in his backyard."
Repeatedly, he pleaded with voters to think carefully about their choices. He noted that the office of the president "affects our culture," setting an example for children.
"Listen, Donald Trump is a serial philanderer and he boasts about it," Cruz said, directly raising Trump's marital history for the first time.
He accused the news media of enabling Trump, singling out Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes of Fox News.
New York Times
