Ted Cruz’s wife and father had to be escorted from an aggressive crowd on the Republican convention floor after the Texas senator’s explosive “vote your conscience” speech Thursday night in Cleveland. In beginning his remarks today, he said, “I recognize there are some folks here and elsewhere at the convention who are not happy with me”.
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Cruz, though, told the delegates that what he said Wednesday and what he is sticking with is encouraging people to vote for leaders who will “do what they say and stand by their principles”.
Republicans woke up Thursday morning still angry and confused by Ted Cruz’s resounding diss of presidential nominee Donald Trump – vowing retribution for his disloyalty. “That pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you attack and slander Heidi, I’m going to come along like a servile puppy dog”.
On Wednesday night, the senator refused to endorse Donald Trump.
Susan Hutchison, chair of the Washington delegation to the convention, said she confronted Cruz after his speech and called him a “traitor to the party”.
During the race, Trump labeled Cruz “Lyin'” Ted and questioned whether Cruz was eligible to run for the presidency because he was born in Canada.
“And to those listening, please, don’t stay home in November”, Cruz said.
As our cause goes forward, I want to remind you about the stakes. “And I did not see Mr. Cruz’s speech helping defeat Hillary Clinton and electing Donald J. Trump”.
“He’s very self-absorbed, he’s a narcissist and the rest of America now knows the Ted Cruz we know and I think he’s ended his political career”, said Rep. Chris Collins of NY, a leading Trump backer.
Cruz said he had “the full intention of doing that”.
– It’s Donald Trump’s big moment to make his case to the country – and to the many rattled doubters in his own party.
As for Trump, the nominee’s response to Cruz’s snub was characteristically flippant.
At the start of Cruz’s speech the crowd was intently focused and gave him warm applause, but by the end the audience grew agitated when the Republican runner-up in the primary had not yet endorsed the Republican candidate for president. This plan didn’t work, and it led to the elimination of a lot of candidates who could have beaten Hillary Clinton.
The 57-year-old conservative, picked by Mr Trump to bring the party together after his polarising campaign split Republicans, said the NY billionaire had run his presidential election campaign “all by himself, against the odds but this week, with this united party, he’s got backup”.
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“Sen. Cruz, a strict constitutionalist, chose not to accept the strict terms of the pledge that he signed”, Manafort told reporters.
