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Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio exchange words during the Republican presidential debate on Jan. 28 in Des Moines, Iowa. Cruz suggests veepstakes are underway

Ted Cruz is already in the process of assessing potential vice presidential candidates, he suggested on Wednesday when asked whether he would consider a unity ticket with Marco Rubio.

“Anyone would naturally look at Marco as one of the people who would be a terrific person to consider for VP,” Cruz said in a town hall hosted by CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “We’re in the process now of considering a number of different options.”

When Cooper clarified that Cruz was not ruling out tapping Rubio, his former presidential rival, Cruz replied: “He would be someone you would be a fool not to look at seriously. He’s very, very talented.”

Before he exited the race, Rubio and Cruz clashed frequently, something Cruz dismissed Wednesday as “what happens in a campaign” as he described Rubio as a friend and praised him as a great communicator. Earlier Wednesday, Rubio, the Florida senator, said that Cruz is the only conservative left in the race, though he later said those comments weren’t intended to serve as an endorsement.

Cruz’s remarks on Rubio came as part of a wide-ranging town hall, most of which he spent onstage with his wife, Heidi. They spent the bulk of the evening discussing their family — they have two young daughters, who also appeared onstage (Caroline is the “rascally” one and like her father; Catherine is the sweet one, like her mother, and prone to “marshmallow hugs,” Cruz said); their relationship, and lighter topics, including favorite movies (“Legally Blonde” for Heidi Cruz; “Princess Bride,” the “Godfather” series and “Amazing Grace” for the senator).

But Cruz, who lags well behind his rival, Donald Trump, in New York as the state heads to the polls next Tuesday, also worked in some jabs at the real estate mogul—whom he follows on Twitter, Cruz noted.

“Although the truth of the matter, is you could sit alone in the woods in the middle of nowhere and somehow still hear Donald’s tweets,” Cruz said.

He was especially critical of what he described as Trump allies’ efforts to intimidate delegates into backing him at the Republican National Convention, accusing them of acting like “union boss thugs,” and decrying Trump’s past support for physically engaging protesters at his rallies.

“That’s behaving like Democrats in 1968 in Chicago,” Cruz said. “And we’re not Democrats, we’re not interested in behaving like union thugs. Donald Trump needs to learn that.”

For members of the Trump campaign, he said at another point, it’s “almost like they are subjects in a clinical course in psychology. There are all sorts of different behaviors they display, one of them is projection. The conduct they do regularly, they accuse everyone else of doing.”

