Cruz is not expected to endorse Trump, a source familiar with the speech said.
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Cruz was booed heavily by the crowd at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland when he failed to endorse Trump during his speech, as many had hoped. Nor did he ask his supporters, hundreds of whom encouraged him to run for president in four years at an event on Wednesday afternoon, to vote for the newly minted Republican nominee.
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.
“And to those listening, please, don’t stay home in November”, Cruz said.
At “vote your conscience”, the audience instantly began to boo and shout.
The promises made by Trump’s eldest daughter on gender equality reflect a departure from traditional federal labor policies emphasized by Republican leaders.
Former House Speaker John Boehner of OH, who had compared Cruz to the devil, responded by remarking: “Lucifer is back”, his spokesman said on Twitter. “He needed to toughen up like every other Republican loser of any nomination battle in the last 100 years since Abraham Lincoln and just suck it up, be a man and back the nominee that he was beaten by, fair and square”.
The crowd cheered as each state announced the awarding of the delegates to Donald Trump, the man they dubbed “the next president of these United States”.
It also overshadowed a sturdy performance later in the evening by the party’s now-official vice presidential candidate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who displayed the earnest brand of classic conservatism for which he is known.
You know you’re reading a Washington Post sports blog when there’s a focus on what happened at the start of Ted Cruz’s Republican convention speech.
“We are going to build a great border wall to stop illegal immigration, to stop the gangs and the violence, and to stop the drugs from pouring into our communities”, Trump said.
But Gingrich ignored the line and ad-libbed a direct reference to Cruz’s speech: “Ted Cruz said you could vote for your conscience, for anyone who can uphold the Constitution”. “Than all of the people who voted in the elections?” he said.
Trump’s supporters, rather than jumping up and down and screaming at Cruz, would have been better advised to applaud politely and move on to make the case that Trump is the candidate Cruz described. He finished a distant second in the delegate accumulation during the Republican nominating campaign.
The Texas senator refused to endorse Trump during his Wednesday speech, even as delegates loudly jeered him from the convention floor.
“What does it say when you stand up and say, “Vote your conscience, ‘ and rabid supporters of our nominee begin screaming, ‘What a terrible thing to say”?”
Trump and Cruz have had a complicated relationship throughout the presidential campaign.
“Two world wars have shown that peace in Europe is also important for the security of the United States”, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.
With an eye toward 2020, Cruz’s team drafted a convention speech focusing on adherence to the Constitution, a calling card for conservatives and a perceived contrast with Trump. Instead, Cruz talked about conservative ideals that could form the backbone of a future campaign.
“They are hell-bent on keeping this a political issue”, said Republican strategist Richard Grenell.
“Conventions don’t affect people overwhelmingly”, Tammen said. “We have a race to win in 2016”, he said. Yet after Cruz’s insurrection, his task of hailing Trump and knitting together party unity was suddenly even more imposing. “They will cover the Democratic convention as a coronation”, he said, “and they are covering the Republican convention as if it’s an anti-abortion rally”.
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“I am your voice”, he declared pointing into the cameras, promising a return to more secure times with “millions of new jobs and trillions in new wealth”.
