Cruz was asked whether he believed he could beat Trump based on his principles, in an interview with WABC’s Rita Cosby that will air on Sunday,

“I think that’s right. I think in time I don’t believe Donald is going to be the nominee and I think in time the lion’s share of his supporters end up with us,” the freshman senator predicted. “And I think the reason is what I was just saying, that if you look to the records of all the Republican candidates there’s a big difference between my record and that of everyone else if you ask, who has stood up to Washington?

He continued: “Who’s taken on not just Democrats, but taken on leaders in their own party? Republican leadership, whether was leading the fight to stop Obamacare? Whether it was leading the fight to stop executive amnesty? Or actually, just going back to last week. You know at the last Republican debate in California, every Republican candidate stood up there and said, ‘we need to defund Planned Parenthood.’ But last week, when we had an epic drag down fight in Washington, not one of them showed up.”