Photo

Senator Ted Cruz on Sunday forcefully defended Republican calls to delay the elevation of Antonin Scalia’s replacement, arguing that any pre-emptive opposition to President Obama’s choice stemmed from the Senate’s duty to “advise and consent.”

“You know what? The Senate is advising right now,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We’re advising that a lame-duck president in an election year is not going to be able to tip the balance of the Supreme Court, that we’re going to have an election.”

Arguing that his Republican rival, Donald J. Trump, was “indistinguishable” from Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders on “a great many issues,” Mr. Cruz suggested that conservatives had an obligation to choose carefully in the presidential primary.

“We are one justice away from the Second Amendment being written out of the constitution altogether,” he said. “And if you vote for Donald Trump in this next election, you are voting for undermining our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.”

He predicted that, with Mr. Trump as the nominee or with Mrs. Clinton as president, the nation would see “unlimited abortion on demand throughout this country, partial-birth abortion, tax-payer funding, no parental notification. And we’ll also see our religious liberty torn down, our basic rights.”

Mr. Cruz also played down his support for the confirmation of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., whom Mr. Cruz has disavowed in recent years over decisions that have angered conservatives, particularly the affirmations of same-sex marriage and President Obama’s health care law.

“I supported the nomination as a Republican nominee,” he said, adding that he would not have nominated Mr. Roberts himself.