AP Photo Cruz: Trump's campaign helping mine

Donald Trump’s bid for the White House is really helping Sen. Ted Cruz’s own campaign, the Texas senator says.

Both Trump and Cruz have built their candidacies for the Republican presidential nomination around strong anti-establishment personas, regularly highlighting clashes with Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington. And Cruz says that has helped him.


“Others have gone out of their way to smack [Trump]; I haven’t,” Cruz said in an interview airing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I think Donald's campaign has been immensely beneficial for our campaign. … And the reason is he's framed the central issue of this Republican primary as who will stand up to Washington? Well, the natural follow-up, if that's the question, is who actually has stood up to Washington? Who has stood up to both Democrats and to leaders in their own party?”

But, Cruz added, he has a better record to run on than Trump, a billionaire real estate developer and entertainer, or retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, another darling of conservatives who has polled near the front of the Republican presidential primary field.

“I think my record is markedly different in terms of actually standing up and taking on the Washington cartel,” Cruz said. “And I think that's why we're seeing particularly…as voters get more and more educated, study the candidates, listen to the candidates in person, I think that's why we're seeing the grass roots momentum…we're seeing…is conservatives…coalescing behind our campaign.”

Cruz has regularly criticized Republican congressional leaders to the joy of grassroots tea party activists but has refused to bash House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) or rule him out a candidate for speaker to replace John Boehner (R-Ohio), who has announced he’s leaving at the end of the month.

“He's a friend of mine,” Cruz said of Ryan. “This is obviously a question that is wrapped up in the speaker of the House deliberations. I have said consistently I'm gonna stay outta that.”

Pressed by NBC host Chuck Todd, Cruz said he was staying out of House Republican leadership matters. But Todd pointed out that Cruz has often met with members of the House Republican Conference during previous “big” fights in the chamber.

“Look,” Cruz said, “the two chambers of Congress should actually talk together. It doesn't happen nearly that much.”

