Ted Cruz returned to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to rule out a third-party run for the presidency but offered no clarity on whether he will endorse Donald Trump.

Cruz said he trusts his delegates and the voters to determine the next president but offered no views on backing Trump. Asked whether he regretted calling Trump “terrific,” as he avoided tangling with the business mogul early in the campaign, the Texas senator said he has “no interest in Monday morning quarterbacking.”


However, Cruz kept the door cracked to enter the race again if circumstances change. It was a move that will fan the flames from his Glenn Beck interview earlier on Tuesday in which he seemed to keep one foot in the presidential race. Later on Capitol Hill, Cruz conceded there is no way he will win the Nebraska primary on Tuesday night. He didn’t say what events would bring him to enter the race again after suspending his campaign.

“We have suspended the campaign because I can see no viable path to victory. Of course, if that changed, we would reconsider. But let’s be clear, we’re not going to win Nebraska,” Cruz said. “We will always assess changed circumstances.”

He added that he has “no interest” in mounting a third-party candidacy, which would effectively split the Republican Party and hand the election to Hillary Clinton.

If his colleagues were looking to hear a chastened Cruz come back to Washington, they will likely be disappointed. After fighting with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, leading the government shutdown charge of 2013 and causing parliamentary trouble with his strident legislating style, Cruz continued on Tuesday to paint both parties as corrupt and against the average American.

“I’m going to continue fighting for the American people, and if fighting for the American people makes you an outsider in the Senate, then I will happily remain an outsider. Because at least to date, Congress, both parties, both houses, far too often haven’t been listening to the American people. That is the frustration. In this town, too many elected officials listen to big money and special interests and lobbyists,” Cruz said.

Cruz’s lone downbeat moment came when he was asked whether the campaign had humbled him. He would say only that he is “certainly disappointed in the outcome, that disappointed so many millions of grass-roots activists.”

The interest in Cruz’s comments created a spectacle, blocking a wide hallway in the Russell Senate Office Building as Cruz made his remarks. Reporters tried to shout over each other and cameramen jockeyed for position as Cruz tried his best to deal with the unruly scrum.

After speaking to the mob of political reporters for about 10 minutes, Cruz returned to his Senate office to riotous applause from his staff.

