Yesterday, Ted Cruz chatted with Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, one of his presidential campaign advisers and surrogates, about the upcoming Indiana primary, and Perkins gave him a chance to address “how loony the left is in pushing these genderless bathroom bills.”

Cruz, who has been running television ads smearing transgender women as potential sexual predators, said that transgender nondiscrimination policies defy “basic common sense” and accused Donald Trump of caving to “the PC police” when he criticized North Carolina’s new anti-LGBT law and expressed partial support for Planned Parenthood.

He went on to recount a story about “two little kids” who “gave me envelopes filled with change because they set up a lemonade stand and they gave me all the money they raised at the lemonade stand,” citing the incident as proof that people are “ready to crawl over broken glass” for his campaign, knowing that “our nation is hanging in the balance.”

Just minutes after denigrating transgender people, Cruz said that a vote for him would be a vote against “anger and hatred” in politics. Cruz urged voters to pray over their decision, hoping they come to the realization that he is a proven conservative warrior while Trump is simply a poser.

“The stakes [have] never been higher,” he said. “Our basic rights. Our religious liberty. The right to life. The Second Amendment. All of our rights hang in the balance if we get this wrong.”