THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT FOR 'THIS WEEK' ON March 13, 2016 and it will be updated.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX,) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, George. Good to be with you.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC HOST: We’ve seen these extraordinary scenes at the Trump rallies and you’ve said that the Trump campaign affirmatively encourages the violence so to be clear you believe Mr. Trump is encouraging this violence?
CRUZ: Well, let’s be clear. First of all, the protestors were in the wrong. When you come up and you use violence, you engage in violence, you threaten violence, and when you try to shut down and shout down speech, that’s not what the First Amendment allows. The First Amendment gives every one of us the right to speak, but not to disrupt others. But I think also in any campaign, the responsibility starts at the top and it is not beneficial when you have a candidate, like Donald Trump, who’s telling his protestors, ‘Punch that guy in the face.’ You know, I mean, I don’t think you should be encouraging people to violence. And I think beyond that, you know, we need a candidate who respects the people, who engages – even engages the protestors with civility and respect, not with hostility. I think, you know, what I would appeal to for every candidate is decency and civility, that we can disagree and disagree forcefully while still respecting each other and not engaging in insults and vulgarity and not encouraging violence.
STEPHANOPOULOS: He says this is being pre-planned and organized by his opponents, but do you believe this might be a conscious strategy on his part to drive out his vote?
CRUZ: Well, listen, I don’t know if it’s his strategy or not. I do know that his approach to every issue is simply to use angry rhetoric, often to engage in insults, often to curse and yell. And that’s not a productive solution. Listen, we’re all frustrated. We’re angry. I understand that people that are voting for Donald Trump, that they’re angry with Washington, they’re angry with politicians who have lied to us. I’m angry too, but Donald has been enmeshed in that Washington corruption for forty years. And if you wanna fix it-- Listen, all of us are frustrated at the failures of the Obama-Clinton economy, about the fact that jobs are going overseas to China and Mexico, that the wages are stagnated, but we need a president who actually understands the way to fix it. And the way to fix it is small businesses, is unleashing small business through the repeal of Obamacare, through passing a flat tax, through lifting regulations. Donald doesn’t focus on small business, he focuses on Washington and deal making and big business. Donald Trump is the system. He is Washington. And he’s part of the problem.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Both Marco Rubio and John Kasich have said that what they’re seeing right is making it more difficult for them to support Mr. Trump if he’s the nominee. Is it making it more difficult for you?
CRUZ: Well, listen, the approach to Donald— I think if Donald is the nominee I think it is a disaster. I mean, it’s a disaster for Republicans , for conservatives. I think it’s a disaster for the country because if Donald is the nominee, it makes it much, much more likely that Hillary Clinton wins the general. And I’ll tell ya, sixty-five to seventy percent of Republicans understand that Donald is a disaster in the general election. And the answer is not to cry in your beer about it. The answer is not what the Washington establishment is doing, which is try to come up with some magical plan to have a brokered convention and parachute in some establishment candidate. That would be a complete disaster. You’d have a revolt. If you want to beat Donald Trump, the answer is to beat him at the ballot box. And that’s what we are doing. Our campaign is the only campaign now that has beaten him not once, not twice, not three times, but eight different times all over the country. Literally from Alaska to Maine, and everywhere in between we are beating Donald Trump. And, George, what we’re seeing is we’re seeing Republicans uniting behind our campaign because we are the only candidate that is in position to beat Donald Trump, to earn 1,237 delegates and become the Republican nomination— nominee. And we’re seeing Republicans unite.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I know you believe you can beat him, but I have to press this a little bit. If you believe that Donald Trump and his campaign are encouraging violence, how could you support him if he’s the nominee? Isn’t that a line that should not be condoned? Crossing that line, shouldn’t that not be condoned?
CRUZ: And I’m not condoning it. I am encouraging everyone to focus on decency and civility and appealing to our better angels, but my focus is on winning, on winning the nomination, then on beating Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders because let me be clear: Hillary Clinton would be a disaster for this country. If Hillary Clinton is the president, we will lose the Supreme Court for a generation. The Second Amendment will effectively be erased from the Bill of Rights. Religious liberty will be lost for a generation. And our kids will be drowned in debt. We’ll stay in this stagnation. Jobs will keep fleeing America. I don’t want to see my children’s future taken away by Hillary Clinton becoming president, and the way to prevent that is for Republicans to continue uniting behind our campaign. You know, this week I was honored to be endorsed by Carly Fiorina. Also by Mark Levin. It is incredible we have been saying—And by National Review. We are seeing conservatives across the spectrum uniting behind our campaign and as that continues to happen, I believe we’re on a path to beating Donald Trump as we’ve been doing over and over.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You’ve also said—You just said that a brokered convention would lead to revolt? So does that mean you accept Mr. Trump’s standard? That whoever has the lead going into the convention should be the nominee?
CRUZ: Listen, there is a difference between a brokered convention and a contested convention. A brokered convention is there’s a deadlock and the Washington dealmakers come in and pick their favorite candidate who wasn’t even part of the mix. That would be an absolute disaster and it would cause the voters quite rightly to revolt. There’s a difference with a contested convention where you have candidates come in who are neck-in-neck. We saw this in 1976 with Reagan and Ford and the delegates decided. The delegates decide using the rules of the RNC. They vote. It may happen.
STEPHANOPOULOS: So even if you’re number two, you’re saying you could be the nominee?
CRUZ: Oh, look, if Donald and I both go into the convention and we’ve both got a big chunk of delegates but both of us are shy of 1,237 then the delegates will decide. That’s how the process works and that’s allowing democracy to operate. That’s allowing the voters to decide. But let me be clear, George, the best approach is get to 1,237 before the convention. And if you look at the delegates right now, we have 362. Donald has 99 more than we do. Everyone else is way, way, way below, and so what I would say to folks at home: Even if you started this campaign supporting somebody else, even if right now you’re thinking of supporting, perhaps, Marco Rubio or John Kasich, they’re both good, honorable, decent men. I like and respect both of them, but neither one of them have any possibility of beating Donald Trump. It’s mathematically impossible. And so I would say if you’re thinking of supporting one of them, we would welcome you to our team. If you don’t want to see Donald Trump as the nominee, if you don’t want to see Hillary Clinton as the president, then come join us. And we are seeing millions of Republicans uniting and doing just that.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Cruz, thanks for joining us this morning.
CRUZ: Thank you, George. God Bless.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC HOST: And we are joined now from Cleveland by Governor John Kasich.
Governor, thank you for joining us again this morning.
And we have to begin with this remarkable series of events this week. And you said Mr. Trump has created this toxic environment.
If that's true, if he's responsible, as you say, for preying on people's fears, how can you also say you'll still support him if he's the nominee?
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, George, look, I -- I said in the debate when they asked if I would support him, I said yes. But sometimes it's really tough.
The last debate that he was in, as you know, they all sort of caught the contagious positivity that I've displayed and things calmed down.
Uh, but nothing is 100 percent. I mean, I'm -- I -- I'd like, I hope, to be able to support whoever the nominee is, but I have to tell you, George, I don't think he's going to be the nominee.
Uh, I'm going to win in Ohio. We're rising all across the country. And I believe there's a good chance that I could go into the convention with the largest number of delegates, because the campaign has shifted to places where I think we're going to do better.
Plus, one other thing, finally, people are starting to get my message. And when I talk about the fact that, you know, I want to lift people, I know how to create jobs, I have a record, and I'm not going to take the low road to the highest office in the land.
If you were in these rallies, it's almost they had to reinforce the roof. People go crazy when I say that, because they want to see a positive approach and a positive attitude...
STEPHANOPOULOS: And -- and...
KASICH: -- so that's why I think we're doing better.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And you're right, a new poll out this morning shows you ahead in Ohio just two days before these votes. And I want to get to that in a second.
But first, a yes or no question.
Is Donald Trump fit to be president?
KASICH: Uh, you know, I'm not going to -- you're not going to get me to answer a yes or no question. I hope he's going to change his rhetoric and bring people together and start dividing people...
STEPHANOPOULOS: He's not...
KASICH: -- stop dividing people.
STEPHANOPOULOS: -- he's not shy about suggesting you're not.
Here's what he said yesterday in Ohio.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are going to hopefully win Ohio. You know, honestly...
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: -- Kasich is a baby. He's a baby. He can't be president. He can't be president. Too many problems.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Your response?
KASICH: You think I'm going to wallow in the mud with Donald Trump?
Are you kidding me?
I'm not interested in what he says. I'm interested in appealing to his voters. And these are people, George, who are worried about that their job, you know, the stability of their job. They haven't had any wage increases. They put their money in the bank, they don't get any interest from it. They're worried about their kids' future.
That's -- those are the people that need to hear me, because I have solved problems for people like that, both in Washington and also in Ohio.
So wallowing in the mud, nah, no thanks. I'm not interested.
STEPHANOPOULOS: As you know...
KASICH: That's not the way in which you can be effective.
STEPHANOPOULOS: As you know, Mr. Trump is also trying to appeal to those voters, as well. One of the things he's hitting on both on the stump and on the air in Ohio right now, is your support of NAFTA. He's saying that has cost Ohioans jobs.
KASICH: George, we're up over 400,000 jobs here in the state of Ohio. In fact, we have investments. I was just in a plant in Dayton where we have a half a billion dollar investment from -- from the Chinese and they've employed over 1,000 people there. I was intimately involved in bringing that to Ohio.
Yesterday, I was in a plant in Newark, Ohio, where we, uh, we have a significant German investment in, uh, in the energy business. We're getting investments from all over the world.
Our wages are growing faster. We have a $2 billion surplus, cut taxes more than anybody in the country, and uh, we're -- look, we're not out of the woods, but we've made unbelievable progress and I'm sitting in -- in the city of Cleveland, which is the new Cleveland of 21st century, and we're doing very well.
So, look, I don't pay any attention to all this kind of nonsense out there. I'm not going to get down into the mud. Records are fine but, you know, this kind of silly rhetoric is -- all it is is silly.
STEPHANOPOULOS: You are confident. You sound pretty confident about your state, about how you're going to do on Tuesday.
Is Ohio the turning point?
If you block Donald Trump in Ohio, will he not be the nominee?
KASICH: I -- I absolutely believe that. Uh, look, Ohio always seems, George, to be the geographical center of the political universe. I also know that we're rising in Illinois and then we're going to be able to compete in places like Pennsylvania, the Eastern Seaboard, out West...
STEPHANOPOULOS: But you're not on the ballot in Pennsylvania...
KASICH: You know, I -- I think that -- yes, we're on -- we'll be on the ballot in Pennsylvania. That's a whole bunch of political gibberish over there, too. Uh, it's amazing, people try to keep you from getting on the ballot.
But we'll be fine. We will be competing in Pennsylvania.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Even though you don't have enough valid signatures now?
KASICH: No, we have -- we're -- we're fine in Pennsylvania. We're fine. It -- this will all be resolved here soon.
STEPHANOPOULOS: And, finally, you know, we've heard Senate -- Senator Cruz say that if somehow the -- at the Republican Caucus, the establishment parachutes in with an establishment candidate, there's going to be a revolt.
Your response to that?
KASICH: Well, it's -- if they -- if there is an establishment candidate, George, it's certainly not going to be me. And, uh, you know, I think that at the end of the day, delegates are going to pick somebody with a record, somebody who has proven experience, and somebody who can win places like Ohio and compete in other places.
I can -- I beat Hillary more than anybody else. And in Ohio, I -- I think I'm the only Republican who can beat Hillary in this state.
So look, we just keep plugging, one foot in front of the other. But remember this, my goal, economic growth, jobs, jobs, jobs, and make sure that everyone who lives in the shadows has a chance to emerge and live out their God-given purpose, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Governor...
KASICH: We're having a great time out here.
STEPHANOPOULOS: I can see it. You're still smiling.
Governor Kasich, thanks for joining us this morning.
KASICH: Oh, I'm having a ball.
Thanks, George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: OK.
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