From this past weekend, at the event out in California. This conversation, between Cruz and POLITICO’s White House correspondent Mike Allen (who gives a polite version of the typical Washington elite groupthink interview, complete with the “just how crazy and stupid are you?” type questions usually asked of unapologetic conservatives), ended up generating a few headlines; we thought we’d show you the whole thing.

The most reported-on piece of the conversation begins just before the four-minute mark, in which Allen asks Cruz about global warming in the context of the Obama EPA “climate change rule” promulgated yesterday and Cruz flat-out declares he doesn’t see any evidence the planet is warming. (Incidentally, I have more on that in my American Spectator column this week.)

But the whole thing is worth watching. Cruz gets wordy at times; he’s a talker, and perhaps one thing he needs to learn to do in order to eat into the share of the vote Donald Trump, whose slipstream Cruz seeks to ride in until Trump fades, is currently getting is he needs to speak more simply the way Trump does. But like Trump and unlike a lot of the more genteel members of the 2016 GOP field Cruz leaves no doubt where he stands.

That’s refreshing. It’s a reason why while the media is all Trump all the time and the polls reflect Trump in a commanding lead, Cruz is creeping into the top tier.