“Now, let’s be clear, this is nuts," Ted Cruz said of Donald Trump's comments tying the Texas senator's father to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. "This is not a reasonable position. This is just kooky." | AP Photo Cruz on JFK assassination theory: 'This is nuts' The Texas senator laces into Trump for insinuating his dad may have somehow been involved in JFK's murder.

Donald Trump is a pathological liar, Ted Cruz said Tuesday in a forceful and passionate rebuke of the Republican presidential front-runner.

Phoning into Fox News on Tuesday, the real-estate mogul parroted a National Enquirer report alleging that Cruz’s father, Rafael Cruz, was with John F. Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, suggesting that the elder Cruz was somehow involved in JFK’s murder.


“This morning, Donald Trump went on national television and attacked my father. Donald Trump alleges that my dad was involved in assassinating JFK,” Cruz told reporters during a news conference in Evansville, Indiana. “Now, let’s be clear, this is nuts. This is not a reasonable position. This is just kooky.”

“And while I’m at it, I guess I should go ahead and admit, yes, my dad killed JFK, he is secretly Elvis and Jimmy Hoffa is buried in his backyard,” Cruz continued sarcastically.

Cruz defended his father, recalling the story of how came to America with just $100, and slammed the National Enquirer as “tabloid trash” that published an “idiotic story.” Cruz said the tabloid, which recently published a story alleging that the Texas senator has had multiple extramarital affairs, has become Trump’s hit piece to smear his targets.

“I’m gonna tell you what I really think of Donald Trump: This man is a pathological liar,” Cruz said. “He doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth, and in a pattern that I think is straight out of a psychology textbook, his response is to accuse everybody else of lying.”

Trump floated the conspiracy between the Cuban immigrant and Oswald in retaliation for Rafael Cruz using his pulpit to encourage evangelicals to support Cruz. “I mean, what was he doing — what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting?” Trump said on Fox News. “It’s horrible.”

The Texas senator’s outburst in response, which came as Indiana primary voters headed to the polls, is the latest sign that his campaign is flailing. Cruz hasn’t won a single delegate since New York’s April 19 primary and has finished third in all but one of the last six states to vote.

Indiana is a critical state for Cruz to win. Not only does he have Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s endorsement in a state that John Kasich agreed to pull out of, but a victory could aid his effort to deny Trump the nomination and he also faces pressure from donors to win — though polls suggest Trump will prevail by double digits Tuesday.

More than a half-dozen Republicans involved in the pro-Cruz and anti-Trump efforts told POLITICO that Indiana is a must-win if he wants support from donors who have grown weary after his string of losses.

Citing a campaign aide, The Associated Press reported earlier Tuesday that Cruz’s camp is bracing for staff cuts “at minimum” if he loses Indiana. Cruz's campaign manager Jeff Roe, however, tweeted that the AP report is “dead wrong.”

The billionaire issued a response Tuesday afternoon, suggesting Cruz is becoming “more unhinged” as he continues to rack up losses.

“Ted Cruz is a desperate candidate trying to save his failing campaign. It is no surprise he has resorted to his usual tactics of over-the-top rhetoric that nobody believes,” Trump said in a statement. “Today’s ridiculous outburst only proves what I have been saying for a long time, that Ted Cruz does not have the temperament to be President of the United States.”

Before Trump spoke out again, Donald Trump Jr. credited Cruz for “an impressive meltdown.” “Desperate but impressive,” he tweeted. “Reminded me of my 3 year old coming off a sugar high.”

Trump campaign senior adviser Barry Bennett told CNN that Cruz’s explosion was “a truly sad display” coming from a campaign that knows it won’t win Indiana.

“I know he’s tired. I feel for he and his family, but that was reprehensible,” Bennett said. “I mean, no one should do this. I don’t know who thought this was a great idea. But, you know, we’re watching his campaign implode. We’re watching his reputation just being torn to shreds.”

Cruz stressed that Trump is incapable of being honest. “But he combines it with being a narcissist, a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country’s ever seen,” Cruz said. “Donald Trump is such a narcissist that Barack Obama looks at him and says, ‘Dude, what’s your problem?’’’

Cruz continued his broadside, insisting during his nine-minute diatribe that Trump is the center of his own world but combines that with being a pathological liar.

“And I say pathological because I actually think Donald, if you hooked him up to a lie detector test, he could say one thing in the morning, one thing at noon and one thing in the evening, all contradictory and he’d pass the lie detector test each time,” he said. “Whatever lie he’s telling, at that minute he believes it, but the man is utterly amoral.”

Cruz invoked Trump’s other familial attack, when the billionaire retweeted an unflattering image of his wife next to a glamorous picture of Melania Trump, as he continued blasting the businessman as he made his final plea to voters in Indiana to think carefully before they cast their votes for the GOP nominee.

Cruz argued that Trump is a bully who will betray his supporters, who are angry at the status quo in Washington. “I share that anger, and Donald is cynically exploiting that anger. And he is lying to his supporters,” Cruz said. “He will betray his supporters on every issue.”

“Donald Trump is serial philanderer, and he boasts about it. This is not a secret,” he continued. “He’s proud of being a serial philanderer.”

Cruz added that Trump is proud “serial philanderer” as he implored voters to think about the impact a President Trump would have on their children.

“The president of the United States talks about how great it is to commit adultery, how proud he is, describes his battles with venereal disease as his own personal Vietnam,” Cruz said. “That’s a quote, by the way, on the ‘Howard Stern Show.’ Do you want to spend the next five years with your kids bragging about infidelity? Now what does he do? He does the same projection. Just like a pathological liar, he accuses everyone of lying.”