Cruz’s speech was another stumble at a convention marked by several missteps, including a speech by Trump’s wife, Melania, that included lines similar to those in a 2008 Democratic convention speech by President Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle.
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Obama was responding to questions Friday about whether he watched the Republican National Convention, something he said he was too busy to do.
“Whether you’re the governor of OH, whether you’re a senator from Texas, or any of the other people that I beat so easily and so badly, you have no choice”, Trump said. Delegates, though, said there’s fat chance of that happening after this week. Congress Republican majority leader Mitch O’Connell called it a “rookie mistake”; a learning process for a “relative newcomer” to politics. “His speech was pathetic, absolutely pathetic”.
She quickly became a go-to key surrogate for the campaign, widely seen as poised and polished – with the unique ability to smooth out some of her father’s rough edges, vouching for him in personal ways. C-SPAN noted that Trump’s speech was the longest by a nominee going back to at least 1972, if not further.
The senator, who was his bitter rival during the primary contests, was booed off the stage by Mr Trump’s supporters. He still has two years left before he needs to seek re-election to the Senate.
He said: “Our convention occurs at a moment of crisis for our nation”. Mark Sanford, are also unlikely to endorse Trump. “Throughout my entire life, I have witnessed his empathy toward others”, Trump said.
“So now they use the two things as the reason he won’t support”, Trump said of Cruz’s camp. Indeed, earlier Wednesday, he basked in the chants of “2020” from supporters at a rally outside the convention site.
“Then when I saw – somebody tweeted a picture of Melania and a picture of Heidi, who I think by the way is a very nice woman and a very handsome woman”. But for the millions of Americans who weren’t tuned in to the campaign at every turn and are perhaps just now beginning to pay attention, this was a dose of tough medicine mixed with a positive note of assurance that these are all problems which can be managed if we first admit that there is a problem to be dealt with.
Cruz said this week he was “watching” and “listening” to Trump as the November vote approaches. They cheered him – loudly.
“I have seen him fight for his family, I have seen him fight for his employees, I have seen him fight for his company, and I am seeing him fight for our country”. Although Trump made an impromptu stab at explaining his position during his acceptance speech, his effort probably did little to calm those who wonder if he knows what he’s doing. Mr. Kasich and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush have been outspoken in saying they can not vote for him and are publicly pondering their alternatives.
The dancing crowd stands out as one of the highlights of the convention.
Florida Rep. Ted Yoho, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said he likes that Trump is a political outsider.
“My gut sense is that Cruz enabled them to express their true feelings”, Mr. Margolin said. “Jail her”, came the cries from the audience, worked into a frenzy at even the mention of Trump’s opponent.
The Trump aim is clear: to unleash the anti-establishment mood among scared and ignored Americans.
What should have been a routine floor vote on arcane party rules erupted into a public revolt by anti-Trump Republicans.
Going in Mr. Cruz’s favor is that the GOP has traditionally loved “repeat” candidates. Then, Trump sparked more questions about his Oval Office readiness by suggesting in the midst of the convention that the USA might not defend America’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation partners with him as president. “He would have been in better shape in four years”. He said that almost one-third of the U.S.’s manufacturing jobs were lost since the agreement came to fruition, a claim that was rated Mostly True by PolitiFact – but only in reference to losses in Pennsylvania, not across the country.
“But it also elicited strong reactions in the hall, both supportive and in opposition”. He’s talking about things that no one else wants to talk about. “The GOP is just as divided today as it was in 1976”. Good in the sense that this speech did what it needed to do.
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“I am not sure Cruz elicited that same response tonight, but had Ford won in the fall, Reagan’s speech would probably have melted into the ether of history”, Mr. Shirley said.
