Some Missouri delegates to the Republican National Convention are upset and disappointed that Texas Sen. Ted Cruz declared Thursday he’s no “servile puppy dog” as he faced a torrent of GOP criticism over his refusal to endorse Donald Trump on the Republican National Convention stage. I know he didn’t use those words exactly, but make no mistake about it; “vote your conscience” is the same as saying “anybody but Trump”.
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Cruz said Trump never asked him for an endorsement.
The same day Cruz angered Trump supporters by not honoring a silly political pledge to endorse the GOP nominee, Trump was quoted in a New York Times interview praising another authoritarian and asserting that he would ignore global treaties signed by the United States.
Drawing a sharp contrast between Trump and Hillary Clinton, Pence then echoed the message of party leaders the night before: It’s Trump or Clinton in November, so pick a side.
“You know, he’ll come and endorse over the next little while”, he said. He told supporters they have one mission now – to elect Trump president. Visible within his retinue were his wife, Heidi (who would miss the end of her husband’s speech, leaving the hall under protection of a security detail), and his father, Rafael Cruz.
Cruz, who we shouldn’t forget tried to be buddies with Trump for most of past year, ended up in a different place.
She told Cruz she thought what he did was inexcusable and that he was a traitor to the party.
He came in a distant third in last March’s state GOP presidential preference caucus with just 14 percent of the vote behind the victor, Texas Sen. “Everybody needs to support Donald Trump, and we need to have a big win in November”, Scott said. He told delegates to “vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who will defend our freedom, who will be faithful to the Constitution”.
Cruz stole the show by refusing to endorse the party’s now-official champion, who had allowed him a prime-time speaking spot on the night of Pence’s acceptance speech (and on the eve of Trump’s own).
The differences between Cruz and Trump were based in personality and policy. Yet after Cruz’s insurrection, his task of hailing Trump and knitting together party unity was suddenly even more imposing. Cruz, who is conducting himself as someone who has already begun the 2020 campaign, delivered an awesome “daily double”. When the audio-visual system malfunctioned during Eric Trump’s speech, his brother Donald Trump Jr. was there to greet him with a low-five. “But I think we’re at a place in our country’s evolution where it’s particularly important now, with all that’s happened and the concerns that people have, for a positive vision to be laid out”. “I think it hurt him definitely with the Republicans”, she said, adding that she wasn’t surprised by the response.
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Trump, meanwhile, wants the gossip sheet-which nailed former Democratic politician John Edwards’s sex scandal back in the 2008 campaign-to get its due.
