Fox News host Meghan McCain argued on Tuesday that Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz was gaining supporters because he was the "thinking man's Donald Trump."
Weekly Standard columnist Stephen Hayes opined to the hosts of Outnumbered that Cruz was getting the better of the battle between him and Trump because the billionaire was not a true conservative.
"And Ted Cruz looks like he just waking up to that fact after having tightly embraced Donald Trump," Hayes said. "I think that's the risk for Cruz even if I agree with him on his substantive critique of Trump."
Host Andrea Tantaros wondered if Cruz had fought hard enough against a comprehensive immigration bill that was backed by McCain's father, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).
"That's red meat for conservatives in Iowa," Meghan McCain agreed. "What I think is fascinating is Donald Trump was at Liberty University yesterday, Jerry Falwell's school, very religious school obviously. He quoted Corinthians wrong and now it's become this meme all over the Internet."
"Ted Cruz, in many ways, is the thinking man's Donald Trump," she asserted. "He's a religious man that I think a lot of people especially in the hardcore evangelical parts of Iowa can digest as being much more religious. And I think that's going to play really well for Ted Cruz."
McCain's remarks came hours before her father's former running mate, Sarah Palin, was rumored to be endorsing Trump.
Watch the video below from Fox News' Outnumbered, broadcast Jan. 19, 2016.
