Given all that has been said and done between the two, Cruz risks giving up all credibility as a committed conservative who stands on principle if he comes out – or is perceived as coming out – too vocally for Trump. But he passed on chances to say that Trump was “fit” to be president and to take back some of his most notable attacks delivered just a few months ago.
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“I have had many, many disagreements with Donald Trump, some of which you have cataloged. And some of them you’ve catalogued”, Cruz said after being read several of the insults by interviewer Evan Smith of the Texas Tribune. In fact, Lee has not even endorsed Trump himself, saying in May that the GOP nominee “scares me to death”.
Trump has been branded as a phony by hard-line conservatives, Cruz among them, who see him more as a political opportunist than a true Republican.
After Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) made a decision to endorse GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, whom he once called “utterly amoral”, speculation has run rampant regarding his possible motivation. (See Allahpundit’s post yesterday for more on that.) The only changes that could have prompted this are that Trump has re-emphasized his Supreme Court picks and now included Mike Lee as a potential selection (which Lee has already rejected), and that Trump has become a competitive candidate.
Cruz said a key reason for changing his mind was Trump’s naming of a top Cruz ally, Utah Sen.
In a reversal on Friday, Ted Cruz said he would endorse Trump. Cruz merely offered that he tried to stop him from becoming the Republican nominee and that the election is a binary choice.
Cruz went on to describe exactly how that president could build alliances, prompting Smith to ask for a clarification: Was he talking about Trump?
The distinction may matter little to voters, but helps Cruz save face among those supporters still unwilling to forgive Trump’s heated attacks during their ugly and often intensely personal primary campaign.
But Cruz parried that a Clinton presidency would be far more harrowing, and told those gathered that he would not spend the next two months as a Trump surrogate backing his every position.
Yet Cruz expressed real concern about the political ramifications of his decision, characterizing it as “agonizing” and aware that he was certain to upset a large swath of his supporters.
Asked Saturday, “What happened to ‘vote your conscience?'” Cruz responded: “It’s a good question and it’s still what I would urge everyone to do”.
“When I got the ask, I said: Give a commitment that matters to me”, Cruz recalled. And he shared that he has been reading the online comments on Friday’s Facebook announcement closely.
“There was no option that wouldn’t result with people who are deeply, deeply unhappy”, he added.
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“Listen”, he said. “(In) politics, there’s always criticism. None are more important than the Mercer family, which backed a pro-Cruz political group this spring before becoming major Trump backers. “All three of us have chose to forgive the past, and my focus in making this decision was on trying my best to do the right thing for the country”, he said.
