“It’s exactly the opposite,” Cruz said with a laugh during a
radio interview with Tony Katz after the host asked whether the alliance should be viewed as part of an insider deal despised by voters.
{mosads}”What Donald Trump calls collusion is actually called coalition building, and it is how you win,” Cruz said.
“To win you have to build a majority, and I understand that this is something very foreign to Donald Trump because he has not been able to build a majority anywhere,” Cruz added, noting Trump has only won a majority of the vote in New York, his home state.
Trump has repeatedly dismissed the plan outlined late Sunday by the Cruz and Kasich campaigns that will clear a path for Cruz to campaign in Indiana and for Kasich in Oregon and New Mexico, allowing him to focus his resources on picking up delegates there.
“Collusion is often illegal in many other industries and yet these two Washington insiders have had to revert to collusion in order to stay alive,” Trump said in a statement early Monday. He later bashed the deal as “sad” and tweeted early Tuesday that the “joke” alliance is “almost dead” after Kasich suggested that voters in Indiana should still vote for him.
Cruz argued during the radio program that while he and Kasich have some disagreements over policy issues, “We both agree that Hillary Clinton would be disastrous for this country and that nominating Donald Trump ensures a Hillary Clinton win.”
Cruz called it “very, very premature” to speculate that he and Kasich would team up for a White House ticket.
“I respect John Kasich, he is a good and capable man,” Cruz said, before maintaining that the alliance is simply based on the “allocation of resources.”
Cruz continued to push Trump to accept invitations to a
pair of debates in Indiana this week, claiming that the businessman is “terrified” to debate the Texas senator and explain his policy proposals. The Hoosier State holds its primary May 3.
