Donald Trump defended the National Enquirer as an accurate news source Sunday, days after the tabloid, which has endorsed Trump, claimed that Ted Cruz has had five mistresses.
"They actually have a very good record of being right," Trump told ABC’s Jon Karl when asked to condemn the story about Cruz. The tabloid predicted last year that Hillary Clinton had six months left to live.
Despite arguing for the tabloid's accuracy, Trump claimed that he had "nothing to do" with the story or its publication.
"I have no control over the National Enquirer. I didn’t even know about the story. I just got it last night," Trump said, without mentioning that the tabloid had already endorsed his campaign.
"The National Enquirer did a story. It was their story. It was not my story."
The National Enquirer’s story slamming Cruz comes after a series of heated Twitter battles and television appearances between Trump and Cruz over their wives.
When an anti-Trump group released ads featuring a racy photo of Trump’s wife, Melania, last week, Trump threatened Cruz over Twitter.
"Lyin' Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a GQ shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin' Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!" Trump wrote. He later tweeted a side-by-side image comparing an unflattering photo of Cruz's wife with a flattering photo of Melania, to which Cruz called Trump a "sniveling coward" and told Trump to "leave [his wife] Heidi alone."
In his interview on ABC Sunday, Trump said that Cruz started the fight.
"His campaign bought the rights, and they gave it to the Super PAC, and just so you understand, that super PAC is friendly to Ted Cruz. He knew all about it, 100 percent," Trump said. "So he started it. I didn't start it."