(Ankeny, IA) Nationally syndicated TV and radio host Glenn Beck endorsed U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) for President of the United States during a rally at Faith Bible Baptist College in Ankeny, IA hosted by Keep the Promise PAC. The endorsement is noteworthy not only due to Beck’s popularity in conservative circles, but also because he’s never endorsed a candidate before.
At the beginning of Beck’s remarks he said he wasn’t making an endorsement, but rather talking about the principles that are important to making an endorsement. At the end of his speech he asked for Cruz to come on stage and said, “I am here to announce that I am officially endorsing Ted Cruz to become the first Hispanic President of the United States, the first first generation President of the United States, the most conservative President of the United States since Ronald Reagan, and the next President of the United States Ted Cruz.”
Beck rallied the group of approximately 1600 Iowans who gathered on a cold Saturday afternoon.
“I am completely humbled and honored to be here with Glenn,” Cruz told reporters after the rally. “Glenn is an extraordinary thinker and voice for freedom, and to have Glenn come here and give his endorsement and support is powerful and humbling and is indicative of what we are seeing happen across Iowa and across the country which is conservatives are coming together, we’re united.”
“If conservatives unite, we win,” Cruz added.
Beck explained why he was endorsing. “I am here because I don’t think that the rest of the country really gets another opportunity to have their voice heard should Iowa join the establishment and what I think the media would also like and that is a Trump victory here in Iowa,” Beck told reporters.
“We are standing at a crossroads that is extraordinarily important, fundamental transformation is coming our way. The next President has to decide where are we going? Where are we headed? If it is not somebody who has it in his DNA and in his bones that it is the Constitution, not a man that makes America great, it is the Constitution, it is the restraint of government that allows people to be free to create those things. If we lose that in a time of trouble, we may never be able to reverse it,” Beck added.
Beck also responded to a comment that Donald Trump made during a rally in Dordt College in Sioux Center, IA on Saturday.
“Donald Trump said today that he could kill somebody, shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue, and he wouldn’t lose any voters. This kind of hubris is beyond imagination, and there’s one thing to have a healthy ego and it’s another to give a man who believes those kinds of things, who has a habit of anyone who stands in his way of destruction, to give that man the full power and scope of the Presidency is something we will grow to regret,” Beck warned.
Cruz was asked his thoughts on Donald Trump’s comments. He declined to respond directly, but tongue-in-cheek promised that he would not shoot anyone on Fifth Avenue.
During Cruz’s remarks he did take aim at Trump. He said he wanted to avoid personal attacks, but that it was also important to at policy and records. He questioned Trump’s commitment to his primary issue – immigration. Cruz said that Trump in 2013 advocated for amnesty, and said that he currently supports a form of amnesty called “touch back.” Watch below:
Watch Cruz’s full remarks:
Cruz was also joined prior to Glenn Beck’s endorsement by Bob Vander Plaats, President and CEO of The FAMiLY Leader as well as Congressman Steve King (R-IA) both of whom endorsed Cruz’s campaign.
Saturday evening Cruz and Beck held another rally in Waterloo, IA that was attended by well over 1800 people.