Cruz Responds to Protester: 'I'm Not Asking Anyone to Punch You in the Face'

Ted Cruz's campaign events are usually pretty polite affairs. So when a heckler interrupted the Texas Senator at a recent rally in Illinois, he jumped on the rare occurrence as an opportunity to set himself apart from his main rival, Donald Trump.

In the middle of Cruz's speech Monday night, a man yelled at him to "go back to Canada," a reference to the fact that the senator was born in Calgary.

Cruz paused before saying he appreciated the protester expressing his right to free speech.

"One difference between this and a Donald Trump rally," Cruz said, "is I'm not asking anyone to punch you in the face." The crowd cheered in response.

Cruz was making reference to Trump's comments at a rally last month, when he told the audience "I'd like to punch him in the face" as a protester was being escorted out of an event. Violence has broken out at a few recent Trump campaign events, including at a rally in Chicago last week that Trump ultimately had to cancel due to safety concerns. And during one of his rallies in North Carolina earlier this month, a Trump supporter sucker-punched a black protester.

Cruz has jumped on the violence at Trump's events to highlight the difference between their two campaigns as he works to upset Trump as the frontrunner for the party's nomination. While the establishment is no more a fun of Cruz than Trump in many ways, the Texas senator is seeking to set himself up as the safer alternative.

Both Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich have also jumped on the incidents.

When Trump was asked about what happened at the North Carolina event and whether he bore any responsibility, he blamed the protester Rakeem Jones.

"He was very taunting. He was very loud, very disruptive," Trump said on Sunday on NBC's Meet the Press. The Republican frontrunner added that he was "going to take a look at" the incident to determine whether he'll pay the supporter's legal fees, after promising at rallies to cover those costs for for any of his supporters who get arrested for silencing protesters.

Trump has denied any responsibility for the violence at his own events, despite repeatedly encouraging it. During a rally in Iowa in February, Trump responded to a disrupter by telling the crowd, "Knock the crap out of him, okay?"

During an appearance of his own on Meet the Press, Cruz placed the blame squarely on Trump. "At the end of the day in any campaign, responsibility starts at the top."

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