Conservative talk show host Glenn Beck says he believes Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's father was able to escape Cuba as a part of God's plan to enable his son to run for president.
In a clip from Beck's program posted online by the liberal group
Right Wing Watch, the host interviewed Cruz's father, Rafael, a Christian minister.
"Do you believe everybody was born for a reason?" Beck asks the elder Cruz.
"Absolutely," Cruz replied.
Beck then points out Rafael Cruz's journey escaping Cuba and moving to Canada and, eventually, the United States.
"As I learned your story and saw the fruit of that story, now in your son, I am more and more convinced in the hand of divine providence," Beck said.
Cruz agreed, saying, "As I was in Cuba, on three different occasions I thought I would be killed. And that God that I didn't know, he knew me. And he had a different purpose for my life. So it is divine providence that I am here today."
Beck has endorsed Ted Cruz for the Republican nomination for president.