Sen. Ted Cruz on Tuesday backed his fellow contender for the Republican presidential nomination Donald Trump in the billionaire’s recent feud with NBC — which was ignited over Trump’s controversial comments about Mexican immigrants.
“I like Donald Trump. I think he’s terrific, I think he’s brash, I think he speaks the truth,” Cruz said Tuesday morning on Fox News. “And I think NBC is engaging in political correctness that is silly and that is wrong.”
Cruz’s defense of Trump came after NBC severed its business ties to the billionaire and TV reality star after Trump deplored illegal immigration in his presidential announcement speech, singling out Mexican immigrants whom he said are “bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists.”
Trump added that “some, I assume, are good people” and in the following days would go on to clarify that he loves Mexico and Latinos and that he has many friends who are both.
“I do great with Latino voters. I employee so many Latinos, I have so many people working for me,” Trump told CNN last week. “The Latinos love Trump, and I Iove them.”
Cruz, whose father is Cuban, said he doesn’t believe Trump should apologize for his remarks, pointing out that “the American people are fed up” with the illegal immigration problem in the United States.
“He has a way of speaking that gets attention,” Cruz said on Tuesday. “And I credit him for focusing on an issue that needs to be focused on.”
Cruz and Trump have both proposed erecting a border fence or wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, though Trump has repeatedly pointed out that “nobody builds walls better” than Trump.
