Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz repeatedly ducked questions Sunday about whether he would support front-runner Donald Trump as the GOP nominee.
“If the Republican Party nominates Donald Trump, we will lose to Hillary, because when we offer Democrat-lite Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton on the ballot, they support the same social policy, they support the same economic policy,” Mr. Cruz said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“In fact, both Donald and Hillary support allowing illegal immigrants to become U.S. citizens,” he added.
Pressed by host Chuck Todd to say he would support Mr. Trump, the Texas senator proclaimed: “What I’m going to do is beat him.”
He insisted that the GOP would lose the White House if Mr. Trump becomes the nominee.
“I recognize that many in the media would love for me to surrender to Donald Trump,” said Mr. Cruz.
Mr. Trump has declared himself the presumptive GOP nominee after taking a huge lead in the race. The billionaire businessman is the only Republican candidate with a chance to secure the 1,237 delegates needed to clinch the nomination before the July convention in Cleveland.
The only path for Mr. Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich is through a contested convention in which they potentially could win the nomination after multiple ballots.
Mr. Cruz needs a big win Tuesday in the Indiana primary to keep hope alive for a contested convention.
“I am going to beat Donald Trump. We are headed to a contested convention, and we’re gonna win, and I’m not willing to concede this country,” said Mr. Cruz. “Listen, this is my kids’ future, Chuck. It’s not simply a game.”
He blamed the media for creating the “Trump phenomena.”
“Listen, the simple reality is the media, almost entirely, are liberal, partisan Democrats. That is the reality of it,” said Mr. Cruz. “The media created this Trump phenomenon, and then they don’t hold him accountable. Now, I’m sure the media plan to do so if he’s the nominee in the general election.”
After repeatedly dodging the questions about supporting Mr. Trump, the senator credited Mr. Todd with pushing the issue.
“Let the record show you tried very, very hard to get me to commit to supporting Trump,” he said. “The record will show that.”
• S.A. Miller can be reached at smiller@washingtontimes.com.
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