



On Thursday in Wisconsin, Sen. Ted Cruz put on his most presidential jacket, pointed straight to the camera, and called his party’s likely nominee a “sniveling coward” for making disparaging comments about his wife, Heidi:

Ted Cruz: “Donald, you’re a sniveling coward and leave Heidi the hell alone” https://t.co/6OZtrfIwim https://t.co/1jc3pvXHeL — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) March 24, 2016

This is where the Republican primary is at right now. The latest drama over Trump began earlier this week, when an anti-Trump group unaffiliated with the Cruz campaign ran ads shaming Trump’s wife, Melania, for having once posed nude in GQ. Trump accused Cruz of putting the group up to it (which would be illegal), and then promised to “spill the beans” on Heidi Cruz. On Wednesday, Trump used his Twitter account to quote a tweet that included a photo of Melania next to a photo of Heidi Cruz, with the tag line, “the images are worth a thousand words.” So Cruz has reason to be pissed—and to his larger point, Trump really does have a problem with women.

But almost as soon as he finished his remarks on Thursday, Cruz was asked a simple question: Would he support Trump as the nominee? It was a revealing moment that echoed a similar press conference two weeks ago, when a visibly distraught Marco Rubio called Trump a con artist and a third-world strongman who foments violence—but stopped short of suggesting he’d vote for someone else. This time, Cruz didn’t quite answer either, insisting only that Trump would not be the nominee. He may think Trump’s a misogynist, but he still wants Trump’s voters.