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Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz greets voters during a campaign stop at an Italian restaurant in Elkhart, Indiana. | South Bend Tribune via AP Cruz: Trump campaign 'utterly divorced from reality'

Ripping into Donald Trump for running a campaign that operates in a "fact-free environment," Ted Cruz on Friday pressed his case on why he would be a more electable Republican standard bearer against Hillary Clinton than the candidate who is within 300 delegates of winning the party's nomination outright.

“The Trump campaign operates in a fact-free environment. They’re utterly divorced from reality," the Texas senator said in an interview with Hugh Hewitt.

Cruz pointed to polling data showing Clinton with a double-digit lead over Trump in hypothetical general-election matchups. "He gets obliterated," Cruz exclaimed.

"Donald Trump right now is losing the state of Utah," Cruz said, in reference to a Deseret News/KSL poll conducted in March that showed Clinton with a two-point edge over Trump among likely voters.

Utah "may be the reddest state in the Union," the Texas senator told Hewitt, adding that if a Republican candidate cannot win the "most conservative state in the Union, we’re looking at a Walter Mondale-level blowout."

"I will note in contrast, if I’m the nominee, we win. We carry key swing states, we carry independents. Right now, I’m beating Hillary Clinton with young people by double digits," Cruz said.

The broader point beyond electability that Cruz explained he was trying to make comes down to how "stunning" it is "how many issues Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump agree on."

"If you’re a social conservative, it should bother you that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both agree on taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood and both of them think Planned Parenthood is wonderful," Cruz said. "That’s their words. It should bother you that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both agree with Hillary Clinton on banning many of the most popular firearms in America.”