The former Republican nominee, Ted Cruz, announced through a Facebook post his support for Donald Trump, even though the two Republicans have had a previous history of rivalry.
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Mr Trump has been branded a phoney by hard-line conservatives, Mr Cruz among them, who see him more as a political opportunist than a true Republican.
“I think we have one of two choices”, Cruz replied. This comes just days before the crucial first presidential debate between Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and Trump on September 27.
Sen. Ted Cruz, aka Lying Ted, has officially endorsed his hated arch rival in the Republican primaries, Donald Trump.
Addressing a policy forum organized by The Texas Tribune, the Texas senator said Saturday it was “agonizing” making the decision to back Trump, whom he once called a “pathological liar” and “serial philanderer”.
Cruz said he has offered his help to the Trump campaign, but there are no formal plans for any campaigning yet.
“I have no intention of defending everything Donald Trump says and does”, he said.
Other conservatives who had refused to endorse Trump spent the afternoon asking what they’d seen in Cruz.
In response, Trump put out a warm statement saying he was “greatly honored by the endorsement” by “a tough and brilliant opponent”.
He said Trump’s list “provides a serious reason for voters to choose to support Trump” and that Lee “would make an extraordinary justice”.
“I will be doing everything I can to keep a Republican majority in the U.S. Senate”, he said. “And Donald Trump is the only thing standing in her way”, Cruz wrote. Cruz cited Trump’s recently released “very strong list of potential Supreme Court nominees” as a commitment that “matters” and “provides a serious reason for voters to choose to support Trump”. On issue after issue, Cruz encouraged Texans to “vote their conscience” – as he termed it when he memorably snubbed Trump at the Republican National Convention earlier this summer. And second, his belief that Democrat Hillary Clinton is “wholly unacceptable”.
It was hardly a full-throated endorsement.
After her soulful rendition of “A Change is Gonna Come”, singer Patti LaBelle said “Hillary Clinton” into the microphone before leaving the stage. And he shared that he has been reading the online comments on Friday’s Facebook announcement closely. Boyd Matheson, President of the Sutherland Institute, says Trump’s move to name several known conservative thinkers could pay off for the GOP nominee.
“Any path we took, if I supported Donald, if I didn’t support Donald, the criticism was going to be there”, Cruz told a packed auditorium.
As for Heidi’s “beans”, Trump never spilled them, much less described what he was referring to. Mercer is the co-CEO of Renaissance Technologies, and The New York Times reports that he allegedly spent millions to jumpstart Cruz’s presidential bid.
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Cruz said he talked to Trump Friday, and that Trump has not apologized for the attacks.
