Undercutting calls for Republican unity, Texas Sen.
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Former Cruz campaign manager Jeff Roe said that the senator is focused on maintaining a Republican majority in the Senate in 2016 and winning his reelection campaign in 2018, but acknowledged that 2020 could be a possibility.
He hadn’t mentioned Donald Trump at all, instead boasting of the victories they amassed in the primary and just how close they came. “There will not be a Republican Party if you attempt to replace Trump”. Cruz said in a podcast interview with Politico’s Glenn Thrush.
“You have nominated a man for president who never quits”, Pence said. “Until now he’s done it all by himself, against all odds”.
Trump joined Pence on stage, applauding his new political partner and humorously leaning in to almost give him a kiss on the cheek.
Cruz halted his campaign two months ago, having outlasted all but Trump in a field that once numbered 17 candidates. Unlike the celebrity businessman, Pence is an experienced politician, favorite of conservatives and ally of party leaders.
The meeting is aimed at providing direction to his undecided supporters after he endorsed presidential rival Hillary Clinton.
Roe said he hasn’t seen the convention speech.
Still, Trump’s campaign invited Cruz to speak – in a headliner role, no less.
He explained that numerous major mainstream media players were “liberal Democrats” who wanted Hillary Clinton to win the presidency.
So what Cruz says Wednesday during his prime-time convention speech will be closely watched for clues about his presidential aspirations. While Trump has energized many Republican voters, others remain deeply skeptical of his unorthodox candidacy and divisive policy proposals.
“Our party now has a nominee”, he started. Cruz needs to 1. make the case for conservatism in the United States today; 2. explain why defeating Hillary Clinton is essential to that cause; and 3. argue that voting for Trump is the best and the only way to achieve that.
After two nights of mostly low-energy speeches, the crowd packed into the arena was noticeably more energetic Wednesday night, dancing in the aisles and waving signs reading, “America Deserves Better Than Hillary”.
Cruz urged supporters to follow their conscience in the years ahead. After 36 hours of denials, the campaign moved to put the matter to rest Wednesday, releasing a statement from a speechwriter who took blame for including lines from a Michelle Obama speech in the remarks.
“Donald Trump gets it”.
Donald Trump says the plagiarism charges surrounding his wife’s speech at the Republican National Convention are not necessarily all bad. Cruz criticized Trump as a “pathological liar” and “utterly amoral”.
In Cleveland, he’s got a more hard task: How to reconcile voting for Donald J. Trump after the billionaire argued that the father of Gohmert’s pick, Ted Cruz, was involved in the assassination of the John F. Kennedy. He’s his own man, distinctly American. While Clinton has been a target of GOP ire for decades, the harshness of the attacks has been striking. Though anti-Clinton sentiment is an easy way to bring Republicans together, the negativity crossed the line for some in the party.
Sen. Bob Corker says the controversy over passages in Melania Trump’s convention speech has been “aggravated by the response” from the Trump campaign. “I think I have a pretty good sense of what’s going on in this convention, but I haven’t gone in to the bathrooms yet”, he told reporters.
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Trump’s family also kept up their efforts to rebrand the brash candidate as a warm husband and father. “These votes had nothing to do with Trump”, he said.
