Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz called former reality television star Donald J. Trump a sniveling coward after Trump threatened to “spill the beans” about Cruz’s wife, Heidi. 

The problem arose after Trump retweeted a post on his personal Twitter account comparing Heidi and Trump’s third wife, Melania Trump.

“Let me be absolutely clear: our spouses and our children are off bounds,” Cruz said.

In a race that is completely saturated with the most outlandish statements and claims made by those running on the Republican ticket, Cruz was courageous in his actions. It was as if Cruz’s fuse had been burnt at both ends. Stepping up and defending his wife showed America Cruz may not be as much of a pushover as he’s been made out to be.

Although most people in their right minds would consider a retweet as a sort of endorsement coming from someone so directly in the spotlight, Trump’s national spokeswoman Katrina Pierson debated Trump’s repost was the opposite of an attack during an interview with CNN. “Mr. Trump didn’t make the picture,” Pierson said. “He retweeted a tweet because he said his wife is beautiful just the way she is. And since when did it become OK to attack a woman? What is the policy here? Is it OK to attack a woman, malign her character, impugn her dignity just because she’s beautiful?”

Pierson’s statement is a pretty bold one. Trump has continuously attacked women even before he started his bigoted, xenophobic march on the campaign trail.

It goes without saying the 2016 presidential race has been a carnival so far. Regardless of his political views, more people need to look up to Cruz for standing by his convictions and defending those who  have nothing to do with the political side of the race.