Republican nominee Donald Trump defended his earlier allegation that Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R., Texas) father had a connection to Lee Harvey Oswald, saying Friday that Cruz "never denied" his father was in an unverified National Enquirer-printed photo with John F. Kennedy’s assassin.
Cruz was booed off the Republican National Convention stage Wednesday night after he did not endorse Trump in his primetime address. The next day, Cruz said that his earlier pledge to back the GOP nominee was abrogated when the Trump campaign leveled personal attacks against his wife and father, including suggesting his father was connected to the Kennedy assassination
"[Cruz’s] father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald being, you know, shot," Trump said to Fox & Friends on May 3. "I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous. What is this, right prior to his being shot? And nobody even brings it up. What was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting? It’s horrible."
PolitiFact rated the claim "Pants On Fire," saying his allegation was "implausible at best and ridiculous at worst."
One day after accepting the Republican presidential nomination, Trump said Friday he did not want Cruz’s endorsement at this point and then returned to the earlier controversy that had led Cruz to call the billionaire "amoral" and a "pathological liar."
"I don’t know his father. I met him once. I think he’s a lovely guy," Trump said. "All I did was point out the fact that on the cover of the National Enquirer there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast. Now, Ted never denied that it was his father ... I had nothing to do with it."
Trump said the Enquirer, a gossip tabloid that has endorsed him, was a magazine that should be widely respected, pointing to their earlier stories on John Edwards and O.J. Simpson.
"Anyway, so they have a picture, an old picture, having breakfast with Lee Harvey Oswald," Trump said. "Now, I’m not saying anything. They said—and here’s how the press takes that story. So this had nothing to do with me, except I might have pointed it out. But it had nothing to do with me. I have no control over anything. I might have pointed it out. But they never denied—did anybody ever deny that it was the father? They’re not saying, ‘Oh, that wasn't really my father.’ You know, that’s a little hard to do, because it looks like him."
Trump’s remarks sounded similar to those he made in February denying he knew anything about David Duke or the Ku Klux Klan.
"I know nothing about his father," he said. "I know nothing about Lee Harvey Oswald, but there was a picture on the front page of the National Enquirer, which does have credibility, and they’re not going to dupe pictures like that, because they get sued for a lot of money if things are wrong, Ok? A lot of money, and there was a picture, and that’s the only thing I know."