Competing passions were sharply on display Wednesday night when Trump’s fiercest primary rival, Texas Sen. He told supporters they have one mission now – to elect Trump president. “So I guess in Ted Cruz’s case, his word is worthless”.
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But Trump said later on Twitter that Cruz’s lack of an endorsement was “no big deal!” Yessssss? Then: “Stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution”. “If Donald Trump wins in November, Cruz’s speech at the convention be deemed ‘political suicide.’ If Donald Trump loses, it will be referred to as is announcement speech for 2020”.
“His goal with this convention was, among other things, to unite the party”, Manafort said of Trump.
He said he saw the text of Cruz’s speech two hours before it was delivered but thought, “let him speak anyway”. If Trump was banking on Cruz’s endorsement he has only himself to blame for that. Ted Cruz told the Texas delegation that he was not obligated to respect his pledge to support the party nominee because of Donald Trump’s personal attacks on his wife and father during the primary campaign.
His comments came at a breakfast for the IN delegation to the convention and were part of a chorus of criticism from GOP officials. I reported in May that Cruz was nearly certainly not going to back Trump.
Cruz left the meeting with Texas delegates to a standing ovation.
“Indeed, three days ago I talked on the phone with him and told him, ‘I’m not going to endorse you, ‘” Cruz said. Marco Rubio before Kansas’ presidential caucuses in March but since has said repeatedly he’s backing Trump, though Brownback was not a convention delegate. And although Trump is hardly in a position to insist that the pledge was inviolate, we shouldn’t hold Cruz to Trump’s debased standard. “I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father”, Cruz said. As I’ve pointed out before, Cruz’s criteria for endorsing a candidate weren’t exactly that stringent. If Trump can’t credibly claim that he can be trusted as commander in chief, no one should be endorsing him for president, surely.
But Trump dismissed those motivations.
Coats stinging rebuke follows Cruz’s prime-time convention speech last night. “He only thinks of himself, he doesn’t think about party”.
Coulter later added, “I’m beginning to understand why Ted Cruz has been hated by everyone every place he’s ever been from kindergarten to the United States Senate”.
In his remarks, Cruz only congratulated Trump on his nomination, and told delegates they should “vote their conscience” in November.
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But some took it a step further – arguing that Cruz betrayed not only his party but also his faith. He’s in good company, with Republicans like Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush, but it’s a small company, and Cruz is the only member who is likely to run for president again. Donald Trump’s supporters claim to be fed up with candidates who toe the party line and do the bidding of the party establishment.
