“I agree that it sounds like a pivot, or a change, but he says he hasn’t changed”, Tapper shot back. Marco Rubio, also addressed the convention’s third night, delivering lukewarm endorsements of Trump.
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“We deserve leaders who stand for principle, who will unite us all behind shared values, who cast aside anger for love”. That including tweeting an unflattering photo of Cruz’s wife and alleging without any firm basis that Cruz’s father, Rafael, was involved in the plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Cruz insisted he could not support anyone who wages personal attacks against his wife, Heidi.
“I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father”, he told a meeting of the Texas delegation in Cleveland.
Manafort told NBC’s “Today” on Thursday that Cruz “understood what the responsibilities are, someone in his position”.
Cruz’s move might have unintentionally unified the party in way Trump hasn’t managed to do yet, according to former Bush White House communications director and current NBC commentator Nicolle Wallace. Cruz finished second to Trump in the crowded Republican primary campaign and congratulated the GOP nominee on his victory. Ted Cruz said you can vote your conscience for anyone who will uphold the Constitution.
“We thought Cruz was saying all the right things”, said Ann Marie Villicana, a delegate from Los Angeles. “I am a Christian, a conservative and a Republican”, the VP candidate said, adding “In that order”.
“Don’t stay home in November”, Cruz said toward the end of his otherwise very well-received speech.
Some critics saw the appeal for people to vote their conscience as a vote of no-confidence in Trump.
It’s Donald Trump’s turn himself, on Thursday, to bring proceedings to a close, with November’s presidential showdown against Hillary Clinton in his sights. Former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli told ABC News that he escorted Heidi Cruz out of the convention hall because “it was volatile and the Trump folks were physically approaching and confrontationally yelling”, he said via text.
He did not mention the candidate’s name at all in the rest of his speech, in which he echoed Mr. Trump on a range of issues, such as fighting Islamic terrorism, protecting the borders of the country by “building a wall”, and destroying the “corrupt elite political establishment”.
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Yet, just one day before the GOP convention kicks off, 60 percent of Americans say the presumptive Republican nominee is unqualified to be president.
