Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said following the second Republican Party primary debate on Wednesday night that he believes Florida Governor Ron DeSantis was “the big winner” and that most of the candidates did not do anything to help themselves.

Cruz made the remarks during an episode of his “Verdict” podcast with co-host Ben Ferguson following the debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.

“This was a bumpy debate. There were a lot of rocky moments. I think most of the candidates did not help themselves,” Cruz said. “But my clear conclusion from tonight is the big winner was Ron DeSantis.”

Cruz said that after the first debate, he thought former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy did well, but the overall winner was Trump because other candidates outside of DeSantis did well.

“I think going into the night DeSantis needed to do well. And I think he rose to the occasion,” Cruz said. “I think he did by far the best of anyone on the stage.”

Cruz said that DeSantis did the best for several reasons, including the “behavior of the others,” who he said “bickered like children.”

“And I don’t think it helped them,” Cruz said speaking of the other candidates. “I think when they were just yelling at each other back and forth, and back and forth, and back and forth. When you see a bunch of people screaming at each other, they don’t look like presidents. They’re not behaving like presidents. Presidents don’t have to yap at each other.”

Cruz said that DeSantis had “several best answers of the night,” including his answer on education, which Cruz said was the “single best answer of the night.”

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“The topic came up about education, it came about school choice, and he gave a strong, powerful answer about school choice, about how number one, Florida had implemented universal school choice,” Cruz said. “Florida has led the country in school choice. So, they’ve got a heck of a record to talk about. He was asked about the attacks on their efforts to root out Critical Race Theory in Florida. And he directly confronted that, and I thought it was a tight, crisp answer. That was strong.”

Cruz said he also thought DeSantis gave a “very, very strong” answer while talking about victories that he won in Florida. “The reason people got excited about DeSantis when he launched the campaign is the victories that he had in Florida, big policy victories,” Cruz said. “He emphasized that.”

Cruz said he also liked the moment where DeSantis talked about winning and how he won in landslide fashion during the midterms while the Republican Party largely underperformed across the country.

“He talked about winning in Florida, even as nationally, we were getting clobbered in 2022,” Cruz said. “He won by 19 points, and I think he did an effective argument. In many ways, his strongest argument against Trump is that he won while many other candidates that Trump had supported nationally did not win that cycle. And his argument, you want a winner, you want someone who can beat the Democrats, I’m that guy. I think he articulated it much, much better tonight than he did in the first debate, that’s why I think Ron DeSantis won tonight.”

Representative Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) this week claimed repeatedly that the southern border is “secure,” leaving CNN anchor Jake Tapper stunned.

“No doubt about it, our border is secure,” Pressley said Wednesday on CNN. “And we are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis, and we have to fix a broken system —”

“You think it is secure? You think the border is secure? Or it is not secure?” Tapper interrupted her.

Democrat Rep. Ayanna Pressley *insists* "our border is secure" pic.twitter.com/HrAalHjJAL

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) September 28, 2023

“I believe that we are in the midst of a humanitarian crisis and there needs to be federal investment to support those migrant families,” Pressley said, adding that the crisis is a consequence of “longstanding broken policies.”

“I don’t disagree with this being a humanitarian crisis at all, but just to get some clarity on this … do you think that the border is secure? Is that what you said?” Tapper asked again.

“Yes, the border is secure,” Pressley said, adding that the border situation is one reason Congress should avoid the impending government shutdown.

“But if you have millions of undocumented migrants coming into the country, how is the border secure?” Tapper pressed.

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“Jake, this is not a new crisis,” Presley said, adding that the situation requires “more political will and commitment.”

“I’m not disagreeing with anything you’re saying except for the idea that the border is secure. I mean if you have people crossing the border, it’s just by definition not secure,” Tapper said.

He added that some critics argue the porous border encourages migrants to put themselves at the mercy of smugglers who prey on them.

“It just seems like such a refusal to acknowledge reality, to say that the border is secure when we all know millions of people are crossing the border illegally every year,” Tapper said.

“Jake, and that is a consequence of a number of things,” Pressley said, mentioning “climate refugees,” as well as people fleeing violence and corruption.

“Okay, it sounds like in there, you acknowledge that there are millions of people crossing the border illegally, which would mean that the border is not secure,” Tapper said, adding “would you grant me the point that the border is not secure?”

“Jake, that is a conversation for another day,” Pressley responded.

The migrant crisis at the border has been ramping up in recent weeks.

In August, there were nearly 233,000 migrant encounters at the southern border, the highest August on record, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said. That number marks a jump from under 184,000 encounters in July.

Last month’s numbers are also a significant rise from August a year ago, when there were only 204,000 migrant encounters. September’s numbers are already tens of thousands of encounters higher than last year as well.

Meanwhile, several major cities, particularly New York and Chicago, have been struggling with a migrant crisis as tens of thousands of newcomers show up on their doorstep.

New York City is struggling to metabolize more than 113,000 migrants who have shown up in the city since last spring, nearly 60,000 of whom are still being housed on the city’s dime. The city has already spent more than $1.2 billion on the migrants.

Chicago has seen an influx of about 13,500 migrants recently and has already spent at least $250 million on the issue.