Glenn Beck Says U.S. Is Doomed Without Cruz

RENO, Nev. (CN) - Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt and right-wing pundit Glenn Beck stirred up a crowd for Ted Cruz on Monday, with Beck predicting a "violent revolution" if the nation elects Hillary Clinton or Marco Rubio.

Though Trump led Cruz by more than 20 percent in the polls the day before the state's Republican Caucus, Cruz said he drew hope from Laxalt's successful 2014 race, in which, Cruz said, Laxalt was said to be too far to the right to win.

The Texas senator and his endorsers spoke to a crowd of about 800 Monday at a Boys & Girls Club in Reno.

Beck - who told the crowd that he'd predicted 9/11, the financial crisis and the rise of ISIS, though no one listened - predicted that the country will be doomed if it does not elect Cruz.

Should the nation elect the "status quo" candidates Marco Rubio or Hillary Clinton, Beck said, there will be "violent revolution within the next 10 years." He warned that "Donald Trump is dangerous" and authoritarian.

Cruz said he relate to Beck's struggle to get Americans to listen. "Everyone said he was a right-wing nut job," Cruz said. "I wonder what that's like."

All three speakers graced Cruz with the mantle of the late Justice Antonin Scalia.

"There is no longer a thread holding up the constitution," Beck said. "With the death of Justice Scalia, that thread has been cut."

Laxalt said Cruz is the only candidate who has argued cases at the Supreme Court nine times and the only candidate who understands the importance of putting a "constitutionalist" on the Supreme Court.

Cruz said he attended Scalia's funeral and promised he will put a constitutionalist on the court in his first few days of his presidency - tacitly presuming that Republicans will succeed in their plan to deny a hearing to any Obama appointee.

Cruz, who has proposed massive tax cuts, likened his stance to the fight against a so-called Margin Tax that Nevadans defeated at the polls in 2014. It would have imposed a 2 percent tax on businesses that reported more than $1 million in revenue a year in Nevada, to help fund schools. The next year, Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval pushed through a similar Commerce Tax on businesses that kicked in at $4 million, as part of a $1.5 billion omnibus tax to help fund the schools.

"The people who stood against the tax increase stand with us," Cruz said. "The people who supported it stand with Rubio."

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