They may be strange political bedfellows, but former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has joined forces with Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump in a bid to crush Sen. Ted Cruz's barnstorming bid for the White House, Newsmax has learned.
The new effort to bust the second-place Texas senator's campaign began Thursday night when Huckabee left Fox News' Republican undercard debate and raced over to Trump's rally to raise money for veterans.
It quickly became apparent on stage that Huckabee and Trump have bonded, as the two smiled and bear-hugged before a wildly-cheering crowd and Huckabee went on to wax poetic about the billionaire developer.
"I'm not going to attack Donald Trump … I [was] asked to come to an event where money was going to be raised to help our veterans," Huckabee told the audience.
Referring to the fact that Fox had kept him out of the main debate in which Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio slugged it out as the main players, Huckabee added: "I said well, wait a minute, now, if there were no political considerations and I have some time because I'm not doing anything at 9 tonight."
Earlier, Huckabee told CNN's Wolf Blitzer: "I'm still running for president, we've got the caucuses Monday night, but I'm delighted to join with Donald Trump in an effort to salute the veterans."
Huckabee's appearance next to Trump came just one day after a super PAC backing his presidential bid released a brutal
TV ad questioning Ted Cruz's commitment to his religious faith.
In the commercial, two women discuss Cruz's remarks about gay marriage and imply he's been cheap to churches and charities.
"I heard something about Ted Cruz — that gay marriage wouldn't be a top priority for him?" says one woman.
The other says: "He said it at a fundraiser in New York City. He tells them one thing — tells Iowans another."
Their remarks refer to Cruz's comment at a December fundraiser that overturning same-sex marriage would not be a "top three" priority for him.
The anti-Cruz ad also questions the Texan's charity and church donations.
"He doesn't tithe? A millionaire that brags about his faith all the time?" one says.
On CNN's "New Day," Huckabee tore into Cruz as an untrustworthy, fair-weather politician.
"I think trust comes into question when a person starts changing their views on a whole variety of issues and they do it for political expediency — they don't do it with any explanation of conviction — or when people change their views depending on the geography of where they happen to be," Huckabee told CNN.
"If they say one thing in Manhattan and another thing in Marshalltown, Iowa, that's when you start wondering about whether you can trust them.... When a person … is always moving with the political wind vane, when a person is a thermometer instead of a thermostat, that person's not a leader. And no, you can't trust them."
He named immigration, H-1B visas, ethanol, trade and the legalities of same-sex marriage as issues Cruz has flip-flopped on.
"He wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal saying [trade] was the greatest thing since toothpaste, then he came out when the political wind shifted and said he was against it," Huckabee said.
"So, when you talk about trust, it's a matter of consistency in your beliefs. You don't change them geographically."
Trump held the rival event, aired at the same time as the debate on Fox, to punish the network for refusing to remove his nemesis Megyn Kelly as moderator. Earlier this week, he announced he would boycott the event, prompting network star Bill O'Reilly to beg him to reconsider during a TV interview.
Trump then invited any of his GOP rivals to join him at the rally, Huckabee and Santorum accepted.
It's also obvious that Huckabee and Trump are on the same page in attacking Cruz.
Like Huckabee, Trump also has been firing stinging right hooks at Cruz, calling him "nasty," unlikable and questioning if he's eligible to serve as commander-in-chief because he was born in Canada.
And on Friday, Trump piled it on further.
"I think we're going to do really well in Iowa. We're leading in the Iowa polls. And Cruz is in second place. He got really pummeled last night. I'm glad I wasn't there. And they didn't even mention that he was born in Canada," Trump said as he addressed supporters in Nashua, Iowa.
"So he got beaten pretty badly last night. And I don't know what's going to happen to him."
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