Evangelical leader Tony Perkins on Friday said there is no scenario in which Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio wins the nomination.
“Marco Rubio does not have a way forward,” the Family Research Council president said on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria.”
{mosads}“It would make sense that if we want to have a strong, serious leader leading the nation forward, that Ted Cruz is the one that I believe people should begin to rally around,” added Perkins, who has endorsed Cruz for president.
Perkins argued that Cruz is the last, best hope for keeping the GOP presidential nomination away from front-runner Donald Trump.
“The polling suggests that Ted Cruz in a head-to-head with Donald Trump wins,” he said. “When you look at Trump, it appears that he’s stalled.”
Perkins charged that Trump’s business background makes him completely unsuited for handling foreign policy issues.
“You can’t sit down and negotiate a deal with ‘Little Kim’ and North Korea,” he said, referencing North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. “You can’t talk about the size of [Russian Leader Vladimir] Putin’s body parts and hope to keep Americans safe.
“Under the policies of this administration, the world has become a very volatile place. If you get [national security] wrong, Americans die, as we’ve seen with this administration.”
Cruz has repeatedly portrayed himself as the sole Republican presidential contender capable of vanquishing Trump.
Trump won seven out of 11 voting contests nationwide earlier this week on Super Tuesday, further cementing his position as front-runner. Cruz, in contrast, won three states, while Rubio claimed his sole victory in Minnesota.
Trump leads Cruz by nearly 16 points with GOP presidential primary voters, according to the latest RealClearPolitics average of polls.