Trump's attacks on Hunter Biden haven't won the president a single extra vote, says Ted Cruz

• Sen. Ted Cruz said he believes that Trump's attempts to stir controversy about Joe Biden and his son Hunter's alleged business dealings in Ukraine were not having any cut-through with voters.
• Cruz told 'Axios on HBO': 'I don't think it moves a single voter.'
• Cruz urged the president to instead focus on his economic achievements during his first time.

Sen. Ted Cruz said he believes that media stories about Joe Biden's son Hunter are not persuading "a single voter" to change their support in the US presidential election as the final polling day approaches.

Cruz, one of the country's most prominent Republican senators, was speaking to 'Axios on HBO' on Thursday, after he had watched the second presidential debate between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

Asked by Axios reporter Jonathan Swan if Trump's references in the debate to Hunter Biden's alleged business dealings were having an influence on the election, Cruz said: "I don't think it moves a single voter."

"I think that about 10 or 15 minutes when they were slamming each other's families and going back and forth ... That I don't see as moving votes significantly," said Cruz said in a clip of the interview, which aired on HBO Monday.

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In an interview with @jonathanvswan right after the last debate, @TedCruz weighed in on the Hunter Biden story: "I don't think it moves a single voter" pic.twitter.com/5ZvYy7ZkNt

The Texas senator said that Trump's attempts to focus on Hunter Biden's alleged business dealings in foreign countries were not having any cut-through with voters. According to an Axios write-up of the interview, Cruz urged the president to instead focus on his economic achievements during his first time.

President Trump has repeatedly sought to promote a contested story first published by the New York Post which claimed that Hunter and Joe Biden had been involved with unethical business dealings in Ukraine.

During the second debate, Trump claimed that Biden and his family had profited from various business dealings in other countries, to which Biden responded: "I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life," according to a transcript of the exchange.

Business Insider has previously questioned the credibility of the allegations, while dozens of former US intelligence officials have co-signed a letter suggesting the New York Post story could be a Russian intelligence operation.

Cruz also said one of Biden's best moments in the debate had come when Biden had sought to focus on what the Democratic candidate called "substantive issues" rather than personal attacks.

"It's not about his family and my family," Biden said, according to a transcript of the interview. "It's about your family, and your family's hurting badly."

Cruz told Axios: "That may have been Biden's best moment, actually."