Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) has endorsed Ted Cruz, a week before his state's important primary election.
Walker, who briefly ran for president before dropping out last year, made the endorsement in a phone interview with talk-radio host Charlie Sykes — the same man who conducted a brutal interview with Donald Trump the day before.
Walker spoke of his sincere support for Cruz and his platform, and their shared backgrounds as the sons of ministers. But he also added: "A very practical point, I just fundamentally believe if you look at the facts, and you look at the numbers, that Ted Cruz is the best positioned by far to both win the nomination of the Republican Party, and then go on and defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall."
The friendly Sykes remarked that Walker didn't sound like he was just trying to defeat Trump, but was sincerely for Cruz — to which Walker answered that he wanted to make sure that he was genuinely supporting somebody if he were to make an endorsement, and not just against somebody else.
But this might seem like a very different message from what Walker actually said last September, when he dropped out of the race — and called for Republicans to unite in order to stop Trump.
"Today, I believe that I am being called to lead by helping to clear the field in this race so that a positive conservative message can rise to the top," Walker said that day. "I encourage other Republican presidential candidates to consider doing the same so the voters can focus on a limited number of candidates who can offer a positive conservative alternative to the current front-runner."
For his own part, Donald Trump was expecting this, as he said in a tweet last night: