Washington (CNN) Texas Sen. Ted Cruz danced around his position on "birthright citizenship" Tuesday night during a sharp exchange with Fox News' Megyn Kelly in which he accused her of asking "liberal" questions.

Over the course of about three minutes on-air, Cruz went from avoiding the question to taking on Kelly directly.

"Do American citizen children, of two illegal immigrants, who are born here -- the children -- do they get deported under a President Cruz?" Kelly asked.

Cruz replied: "Megyn, I get that's the question you want to ask, it's also the question every mainstream liberal journalist wants to ask. They focus exclusively on the 12 million people."

Kelly cut in and asked, "Is it an unfair question?" to which Cruz said, "It is a distraction from how we actually solve the problem."

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