Rick Perry on Ted Cruz: He's a 'Leader With a Real Plan'

Sen. Ted Cruz is proving to be a "disciplined" campaigner and "a leader with a real plan," but Donald Trump and Sen. Marco Rubio lack "consistency" on the big issues including guns and immigration, GOP presidential primary dropout Rick Perry says.

In a radio interview with conservative radio host Simon Conway in Iowa, the former Texas governor — who dropped his own White House bid in September — heaped praise on Cruz for his "wily" and "wise" performance in the fifth GOP presidential candidates' debate in Las Vegas.

Audio of the interview was posted by Buzz Feed News. 

"I think as the caucuses come into view, as they come into focus if you will, the Iowa voter is going to really require some specificity: 'Tell us how you're gonna get this economy back. Tell us how you're going to address with specificity,'" Perry said.

"And I think that's where the Ted Cruzes' of the world are going to step forward and we're gonna see a leader with a real plan. So with those individuals that are still on that stage, I thought Sen. Cruz was very wily."

"Consistency of your positions . . . that's one of the things I will say in Senator Cruz's defense, that he has been a very, very consistent individual, day in and day out," Perry added. "He's very disciplined."

But Perry warned that Rubio's support for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants is a "third rail" of Republican primary politics.

"Marco Rubio is basically still open to a pathway to citizenship for those individuals who have come into this country illegally and I think I know Iowa caucus goers pretty well," Perry said.

"I think I know the primary voter in a Republican primary and this illegal immigration and those that would create a pathway to citizenship at this particular juncture even though Marco Rubio says it's way down the road, that is still the third rail of politics in the Republican primary, and I think again he has a very, very difficult time of divorcing himself from the work that he did with that Gang of Eight."

Perry then slammed Trump for his turnaround on single-payer healthcare, an assault weapons ban and "politically inflamed rhetoric against Muslims."

"This is an individual who six months ago said that anyone who used politically inflamed rhetoric against Muslims should be — that individual should be held suspect — and then within the last 10 days calling for a ban on Muslims," Perry said.

"Consistency is a very, very important thing for a leader of the free world and I have not seen that consistency out of him," Perry charged. "I don't know what he believes in to be real honest with you. I think he believes in Donald Trump and promoting Donald Trump and Donald Trump's brand."

Perry also decried the role of the media in damaging his run, as well as that of Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Scott Walker of Wisconsin and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

"Simon, I'm biased, but when you had four governors who had very successful records in their home states, and I'm talking about Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, or myself who have now dropped out of the presidential — and Jeb appears to be just on life support from the standpoint of the poll numbers — and those four governors had very good success in their states," he said.

"Again, this is a strange and bizarre — what was the old Grateful Dead? What a long, strange trip it's been, comes to mind," Perry said. "This has been a long and strange trip in a Republican primary and who knows what may come out of it in the final analysis."

© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.