A US senator born in Arizona is on Donald Trump’s shortlist for possible Supreme Court nominees, it was reported Friday.
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“After many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump”, Cruz wrote Friday. Cruz exhorted Republicans to “vote your conscience” and said he was standing on truth and principle.
I’ve made this decision for two reasons.
Cruz aides have not commented. Trump also backed Cruz’s position in a congressional squabble over internet regulation.
In his statement, Mr. Cruz didn’t address his past disputes with Mr. Trump, who among other insults dubbed the Texas senator “Lyin’ Ted”, suggested he was ineligible to be president due to his birthplace and repeated tabloid reports about his father being tied to John F. Kennedy’s assassin.
Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine during a stop in Austin on Friday, was asked about Cruz’s decision to back Trump. Trump also said this week that he would consider naming Sen.
But facing intensifying political pressure to back Trump, Cruz said he would cast a vote for Trump, while stopping short of an official endorsement in a statement posted Friday on Facebook.
The Texas senator’s endorsement comes after he held talks with Mr Trump’s running mate Mike Pence. Like most of Trump’s rivals, Cruz had allowed the mogul’s movement to grow inside the Republican Party, expecting the laws of gravity to eventually bring Trump down.
It wasn’t always this way. Mike Lee appears on the Republican presidential nominee’s shortlist. Cruz repeatedly lauded Trump as “terrific” and said he was happy the real estate mogul was in the presidential race.
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) at the 2015 Iowa Ag Summit in Des Moines. Trump, in particular, 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.
Now, that hero for anti-Trump conservatives has seemingly reversed himself.
“Another promising, talented politician is gonna learn the lesson of misspent political capital the hard way”.
Never, ever Trump. Sorry boss.
Today, both explanations for his long hold-out came back to haunt Cruz.
“I am pleased that he has done the right thing and it shows that he’s really willing to help unite the party”, said Mica Mosbacher, who donated to Cruz and is now backing Trump.
Trump has hired key Cruz allies such as Kellyanne Conway as his campaign manager, and Jason Miller as a spokesman.
A policy wonk who never shied from getting into the weeds of issues, Cruz laid out in detail six reasons why he believes Clinton can not be president: the Supreme Court, Obamacare, energy, immigration, national security and Internet freedom. When that didn’t happen, Cruz became Trump’s most bristling, eloquent critic, attacking an “amoral” and “sniveling” candidate who could not be trusted to defend the Constitution.
“Our country is in crisis”.
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The move – three days before Trump’s critical first debate with Clinton – comes as the Trump and Cruz camps have moved closer in recent weeks.
