mr. cruz: we want to see which reporters have been naughty and which have been nice. merry christmas. thank you for being here. >> i am glad i brought some cool weather. mr. cruz: your reindeer are not happy. >> know they are not. mr. cruz: merry christmas and welcome to our national fly around. we are having an incredible trip across the state spirit yesterday, we had a tremendous rally in las vegas. we went from there to minnesota and had a packed house with enormous enthusiasm in minnesota. we are now in virginia headed to georgia. through the march 1 super tuesday and i tell you the enthusiasm we are seeing all across the country is breathtaking. we are seeing conservatives uniting behind the campaign.

we see it in the early primary states, iowa, new hampshire, nevada. but we are also seeing it throughout the super tuesday states and throughout the country. from the beginning, the race has been simple. if conservatives unite, we win. and conservatives are coming together and uniting behind our campaign. that is why we are winning. i will answer questions. >> in an interview, senator what is your reaction to that? mr. cruz: i will let marco defend his own voting record iphone back to vote against this omnibus. i think it was a betrayal of the men and women who elected us. people are frustrated because we keep winning elections as conservatives. keephen republican leaders

advancing barack obama's agenda. it is stunning. a $1 trillion deal, thousands of pages cut in the dark at night. funds all of obamacare and executive amnesty and all of planned parenthood. it does nothing to stop this iranian nuclear deal. it does nothing to stop president obama and hillary clinton to bring tens of thousands of syrian refugees to america even though the head of -- to determine whether or not they are racists or terrorists. 200,000 low skilled immigrants in this country who will take jobs and tried down wages. a betrayal of the men and women who rose up and gave us a majority. it is no christmas time.

it was welcome leadership playing santa claus to the lobbyists and the special interests. it is why people are fed up with the washington cartel, career politicians in both parties who get in bed with lobbyists and special interests and grow and grow government. chuck schumer was very candid about what happened to her he said senator mcconnell wants the senate to work and the only way for it to work is for them to pass our agenda. that is what republican leadership did they funded barack obama's agenda. why we are seeing so much enthusiasm in the campaign. people understand republican leadership in congress will not turn this economy around. the only way to turn the economy around is with a strong principled conservative in the white house. that is why so many people are unifying, so many conservatives and washington unifying the

campaign. >> americans -- to win a the only way general election is bring back to the polls the millions of conservatives who stayed home in 2008 and 2012, millions of evangelical christians stayed home. millions of reagan democrats stayed home. , we need to be the party of hard-working blue-collar workers, hard-working men and women who want to believe again in the promise of america we need to run against a bipartisan corruption of washington dc that hillary clinton and bodies. that is how we win. if you look at our base, the base consists of the reagan democrats, the working men and women. it is the ohio's eel workers and the michigan auto workers. the electricians and truck drivers and plumbers and the working men and women. the cops and firemen, the people

with calluses on the hands. who have gotten hammered for seven years under the disasters obama clinton economy. frustrated. a great many working men and women stay home. part of why, eight and 12. it is that republicans have gotten in bed with democrats on issues like amnesty. that cuts right to the core of working men and women who want to have jobs and decent wages. we have right now the lowest percentage of americans working since 1997. the wages are stagnant same as years ago.0 people are tired of seeing democrats in washington establishment and's getting in bed together. as the water carriers for big business to allow more and more illegal immigration, more and more amnesty, drive down wages, cheap labor,

washington thinks it is great business but it is not great for the working men and women and i will always fight for them. that is how we win the general election. criticizing obama trump for criticizing you, what is your reaction? mr. cruz: i love rush limbaugh. he is a powerful voice for freedom and conservative principles. as it concerns donald trump, donald trump is a friend of mine. there are a lot of folks in the media that want to see a cage match between me and donald trump. establishment is desperate for that battle. i have no interest in giving them what they want. [indiscernible] a lot of people out there think you are either playing the washington game, i was for it before i was against it -- can you explain how you were never against legalization?

sure, bob. it is simple. i oppose amnesty. marco rubio supports amnesty. i oppose citizenship. marco rubio supports citizenship. i oppose legalization. marco rubio support legalization. i opposed to the gang of eight bill. marco rubio authored and led the unsuccessful fight to pass the gang of eight bill. if you go back to when marco rubio was running for senate in florida, he promised the men and women of lorna, he said, i will leave the fight against amnesty. i promised the minimum women of texas the exact same thing. will leavet me, i the fight against amnesty. , everyone had to choose which side of the line they stood on. senator rubio, unfortunately,

made the decision not to honor the promises he made to the minute women who elected him. instead he decided to stand with chuck schumer and barack obama and hillary clinton and the big-money interests in tohington and lead the fight pass amnesty. i made the decision to stand with jeff sessions and steve king and the american people, to lead the fight to defeat the rubio-schumer amnesty bill. >> [indiscernible] that is factually incorrect. that statement is false. -- back in 2013, the rubio campaign believed it would benefit them politically if they broke their promises to be florida voters and pushed amnesty, and presumably it was because they thought the big money donors in the republican party would reward them -- remember, that was back when

senator rubio was on he cover of "time" magazine, named the savior. they are regretting that decision now. run fromwanting to that. yet facts are stubborn things. what the rubio campaign is -- one of those amendments said nobody here be eligiblen ever for citizenship. it was a one-page amendment. rubio campaign's spending and it off a lot of reporters are repeating iquestioningly is because submitted that amendment to get rid of citizenship, it means i supported the other aspects of the gang of eight. that is nonsense. in i would point out that supporting me in that fight for that citizenship amendment -- i am not aware of anyone putting

forth the ludicrous claim that was supporting legalization. jeff's and mine positions were identical. and even more fundamentally, it worked. 2013 howber back in triumphant, senator rubio, senator schumer, president obama were? they said, we've got the votes to push the through the -- push this through the senate. they were convinced of that. and a handful of us -- and it was a lonely handful in the fight againstthe it. jeff sessions and i both stood on the senate floor. we were assailed from all directions. i spent 30 minutes on the radio with rush limbaugh. during that half-hour, the phones on l capitol hill erected as people across this country lit up the phones and we turn to the debate.

-- the phones on capitol hill across thiseople country lead of the funds and we turn to the debate. we call the bluff. a claimed it was about the immigrants. this was always about partisan politics. the new politically correct term, it's no longer illegal aliens. now it is undocumented democrats. this was about partisanship, and my amendment saying no citizenship laid naked the hypocrisy behind how we defeated it. ? theare we seeing washington establishment is panicking. they're panicking because conservatives are uniting campaign.r they are trying to muddy the waters. they are checking to suggest everybody else was for amnesty. lee came out

publicly and said, ted is telling the truth. marco is not going the truth. senator jeff sessions has come out publicly and said, ted is telling the truth, marco is not telling the truth. and rush limbaugh has come out publicly and said, ted is telling the truth, marco is not telling the truth. famously said, facts are stubborn things and i understand the political desire of other candidates to muddy the record, but the facts are simple. . oppose amnesty i have always opposed amnesty. and i always will oppose amnesty, and i will note the other candidates on that stage are not willing to say that because that has not, is not, and will not be there position. thank you. >> why didn't you tell us that for the last year? you only did it this week. ok. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its

caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] ♪ >> thank you, ted. >> [indiscernible] >> i love you.

♪ [indistinct conversations]