During their primary battle, Trump insulted the senator’s wife Heidi for her physical appearance and suggested that Cruz’s father was linked to late President John F. Kennedy’s assassin.
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But the closest as Cruz came to saying he wanted Trump to win the White House was when he said: “I want to see the principles that our party believes in prevail in November”. He was the one who stood up to Trump, while Scott Walker, Marco Rubio (who addressed the convention by video), and Paul Ryan played nice.
“I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father”, Cruz told a meeting of the Texas delegation in Cleveland.
Susan Hutchison, chair of the Washington delegation, said she confronted Cruz after his speech and called him a “traitor to the party”.
The newly crowned Republican nominee had hoped for a triumphant turn at the podium, but he was instead plagued by fresh political and policy headaches: His most tenacious primary rival, Sen. “We will secure our borders, protect our nation – in all this, we will be more serious and when we do, this nation will start winning again”, Pence said. But we’ll say this about Cruz: He went all-in with his political future, and he’s gambling for a big Trump loss, because if Trump loses by just 2-3 points to Clinton in November, some Republicans might blame him for coming up short.
A “donate” button on Trump’s official campaign website redirects to a page with a picture of Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, his three oldest children.
During the Q&A session, several delegates berated Cruz for failing to back Trump, at times yelling at the Senator and launching into chants of “Trump!” As Cruz was concluding his speech, Trump entered the Quicken Loan Arena, with television cameras showing him smiling and giving a thumbs up to the crowd.
He also denounced the Texas senator for “too clever by half word play” in his remarks urging voters to “vote your conscience”.
“I can tell you this – if we don’t defend freedom and the Constitution and if we don’t make the case to the American people that our candidate can be trusted to defend freedom and the Constitution, we will lose and….”
He also went on the offensive against Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
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.
Cruz responded that when he originally made the pledge he had every intention of keeping it until the race became personal.
Trump, 70, said his speech would deal with such issues as trade, law and order, and border security.
“If we’re not going to do that, why do we have elections?”
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In a blunt takedown posted Thursday, the head of Conservative HQ news site writes Cruz’s decision “was not good for Ted Cruz, conservatives, Republicans, and America”.
