CLEVELAND Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will try to restore order to his convention on Thursday with a prime-time speech after rival Ted Cruz drew boos for refusing to endorse him.
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As he appeared on stage Wednesday night, Cruz basked in a minute-long standing ovation.
It’s been mere days since Donald Trump has been named the official Republican presidential nominee, and his campaign has already been ridden with more scandals than Kerry Washington would know what to do with.
But on Wednesday night, after Cruz declared voters should just “vote their conscience” – and not necessarily for Trump – he was booed off the stage. But before Pence even reached the stage of the Republican National Convention, the moment was snatched from him by the man presidential nominee Donald J. Trump dubbed Lyin’ Ted.
Cruz paused, then said: “I appreciate the enthusiasm of the NY delegation”.
But as Cruz closed his remarks, and as the crowd of more than 2,000 delegates at the Quicken Loans Arena waited for Cruz to say something – anything – kind about Trump, he demurred.
Later in the speech, he urged: “Please, don’t stay home in November”.
“If you love our country and love your children as much as I know that you do, stand and speak and vote your conscience”, he said as the crowd erupted into yells of anger. Many delegates, including loud exhortations from the NY delegation, began chanting, “Endorse Trump!”
Cruz pointedly didn’t point out who’s on the top of the ticket in an unusual convention speech in which a vanquished candidate did not endorse the victor.
Cruz did tell his supporters he wanted to see unity in the Republican Party and that the way to do that was “unite behind shared principles, us to unite in defense of liberty and for us to empower the grass roots”.
Trump, for his part, said Cruz’s speech did not bother him.
“The day that was abdicated was the day this became personal”, Cruz said. Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Some Never Trumpers, like former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, she said, were just in the movement to lay groundwork for a Ted Cruz 2020 run, and others, like herself, were simply averse to the idea of Trump at the party’s helm. Ted Cruz and a video message from Florida Sen.
During the primary campaign, Cruz called the NY real estate developer a “serial philanderer” and a “narcissist”.
“If we’re not going to do that, why do we have elections?”
Cruz, remaining cool throughout, merely declared, “I appreciate the enthusiasm of the NY delegation”. “I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and my father”, he said.
At the same time, Cruz is also thumbing his nose at numerous same Republican officials and insiders, who were outraged by what they saw as a classless slight last night, and whose backing he’ll likely seek during his next national campaign.
“Lock her up! Lock her up!” chanted delegates on Tuesday, as Christie proclaimed her guilty on a series of charges, including over her private email server, her treatment of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria and policies towards Boko Haram, an Al-Qaeda affiliated group in Nigeria.
“This was my mistake, and I feel awful for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps, as well as to Mrs. Obama”.
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