“I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my family”, said Cruz, who added he would not be “a servile puppy dog” to the Trump campaign.
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The delegates responded with angry boos, and Cruz backer and former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli escorted Heidi Cruz off the convention floor as she was heckled by Trump delegates.
Trump delegate Cynthia Schaffer (SHAY’-fur) of Tinley Park says it was “terrible” that vanquished Trump rival Cruz didn’t formally endorse the NY real estate developer – which earned him boos from delegates at the event Wednesday night.
As the convention headed toward what is meant to be its big closing event, the evening Trump speech, some in the party were depressed about the convention and the rifts exposed by his candidacy. “It showed there’s tremendous unity”. Trump was referring to Cruz’s pledge during the campaign to support the eventual nominee. “That is not going to get us to unify”, said Manette Merrill, a Cruz delegate from Washington state.
When North Carolina Republican Chairman Robin Hayes asked fellow delegate Ted Hicks on Thursday what he thought of the convention speech by Texas Sen. “You’re kind of doing it. And quite frankly, I think it was something selfish”.
But nearly from the start there were blatant signs of party disunity.
Instead, he greeted his supporters at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame close to the convention arena to the blaring tune of The Who’s “Baba O’Riley” with lyrics like, “I don’t need to fight to prove I’m right”.
Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort told reporters that Kasich was “embarrassing his state” by refusing to get on the Trump train. His remarks were a reminder of the sort of insults that many Republicans had hoped would disappear after a brutal primary season that was characterized by Trump’s often personal attacks on his opponents. I stand for principles.
Trump himself weighed in on Twitter, saying party division will only help elect Clinton so that she can re-make the Supreme Court: “Ted Cruz talks about the Constitution but doesn’t say that if the Dems win the Presidency, the new JUSTICES appointed will destroy us all!” “I did them a favor to bring them up here”.
The Republican National Convention in Cleveland is almost over, and Donald Trump is now officially the GOP presidential nominee.
The convention has been overshadowed, for example, by controversy surrounding his wife Melania’s convention speech – which included lines uttered by first lady Michelle Obama at the Democratic convention in 2008 – and the campaign’s initial reluctance to admit the plagiarism. The party had made the theme for the day “Make America One Again”.
“That pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi, that I’m going to nonetheless come like a servile puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father”, Cruz told members of the Texas delegation Thursday morning.
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Irate convention delegates predicted Cruz had committed political suicide by accepting a prime-time speaking slot Wednesday only to urge Republicans to “vote your conscience”, not vote for the nominee.
