Cruz made the surprise announcement on Friday that he intends to cast his vote for Donald Trump after refusing to lend him his support until now, not even when he spoke from the podium at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland last July after the multimillionaire had landed the Republican candidacy.
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In the Facebook post, he wrote that he chose to vote for Trump because he “promised to support the Republican nominee” and he “intend [s] to keep [his] word”. He also mentioned support for Trump’s list of potential Supreme Court Justices.
In his Facebook statement, Cruz cited two reasons for his shift: his pledge to support the party nominee and his disdain for Clinton.
Twenty-four hours after surprisingly abandoning his months-long opposition to his former Republican primary foe, Cruz uneasily stumped for Trump’s White House bid, portraying him as the best and only option to stop Hillary Clinton. And he didn’t want to be seen by conservatives as aiding Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Cruz’s endorsement of Trump left behind a tense relationship between the two top Republican contenders, which was full of sarcasm, acrimony and even animosity. Unloading on Trump after his campaign-ending defeat in Indiana, Cruz called the GOP nominee “a pathological liar”, a “serial philanderer” and “utterly amoral”.
Cruz was roundly criticized for his rebel behavior and viewed as a poor loser after being invited to speak at the now-nominee Donald Trump’s coronation.
The New York Times is endorsing Hillary Clinton for president. “We have fought the battle and he was a tough and brilliant opponent”. I greatly appreciate his support!
Mrs Clinton addressed the shift on social media by posting a tweet from Mr Cruz himself calling on Donald Trump to release his tax returns.
The Texas senator also mentioned his pet project to repeal Obamacare, Trump’s vow to deregulate the energy industry, the businessman’s pledge to revoke President Obama’s executive orders on immigration and Trump’s opposition to accepting “unvetted” refugees. Since Cruz’s convention speech, Trump has threatened to back a primary challenger to Cruz when he comes up for re-election in Texas in 2018.
“You’re doing such a fine job saying that”, Cruz responded.
However, the fact that Cruz is supporting Trump might be due to the former candidate’s desire to run for the presidency on 2020 or to play an important role in Trump’s team in case he wins the presidency. Mr. Trump has so far ran his campaign without offering specifics and sidestepping most of the questions relating to his controversial policy proposals.
As the GOP field winnowed, though, Cruz and Trump quickly turned on one another.
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