Fox Host Pressures National Review Editor To Endorse Ted Cruz

Andrea Tantaros Questions Rich Lowry: “Why Haven't You Endorsed Ted Cruz Yet, If He Is A Conservative?”

From the February 2 edition of Fox News' Outnumbered:

Video file

ANDREA TANTAROS (CO-HOST): Rich, I want to ask you, [Marco Rubio's] Achilles heel is immigration -- 

RICH LOWRY: Why do you always come to me with these questions?

TANTAROS: Well, because you're very opinionated. You take out covers and you're weighing in and you're our “one lucky guy.” I've got to ask you.

LOWRY: I'm just teasing. Well, I run an opinion magazine, so we are opinionated.

TANTAROS: You and I both can agree that a Ted Cruz win is a win for conservatives. Will National Review endorse Ted Cruz? 

LOWRY: I think both Cruz and Rubio are really good choices.

TANTAROS: Well why haven't you endorsed Cruz yet?

LOWRY: But let me try to agree with you on something, if I could. I don't think [Donald] Trump should be the nominee. But I also think it would be a very bad result if after all this the party learns nothing from him. I think there are important lessons to be learned about the importance of immigration. Not just illegal immigration, but focusing on legal immigration and the economic impacts of continued increased low-skilled immigration and also playing to these blue collar, disaffected voters who have been drawn to Donald Trump. We need those people within the conservative tent and within the conservative coalition, and have to find better ways --

TANTAROS: Will you endorse Rubio, though? Because he has an Achilles heel on his position on immigration. So why hasn't National Review endorsed Ted Cruz? And will you endorse Rubio? And if you do, aren't you worried the conservatives will stay home? 

LOWRY: Okay, I didn't follow the entire line of questioning, but our endorsement decisions --

TANTAROS: Very easy.

LOWRY: Will we endorse Cruz or Rubio? 

TANTAROS: Will you -- why haven't you endorsed Ted Cruz yet, if he is a conservative? 

LOWRY: Because we have an editorial board that makes these decisions and at the moment, they are divided among Cruz and Rubio, both of whom are good, solid conservatives and men of character,and are vastly preferable to Donald Trump.

Previously:

National Review Launches Conservative War On Donald Trump

GOP Civil War: Conservatives Turn On National Review Over Anti-Trump Issue

The Extremism Of National Review's Trump Critics