But the likelihood that we will see more of the same for the next 100 days virtually guarantees Republican defeat.
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Cruz, the us senator who came in second to Trump in the race for the Republican nomination after a bitter campaign, was booed by delegates at the Cleveland convention on Wednesday night when he refused to endorse Trump in a high-profile speech. New York Congressman Peter King called the Texas senator an anatomical expletive. By Thursday the term “political suicide” was flying around the internet, employed by the very conservatives Cruz assumed to be his base.
After he attempts to bring convention delegates and party leaders together, Trump must continue to speak directly to the disaffected, disenfranchised and frustrated voters yearning for change.
Cruz stunned convention-goers on Wednesday night with a prime-time address that fell well short of endorsing the nominee Trump. “I’ve never seen it this disunited”. He certainly looked the part when he went into the tale of a nine-year-old girl’s sad last goodbye to her policeman father the day he was gunned down in that Dallas massacre. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth. “I think what Ted’s trying to do is hold Donald’s feet to the fire and make sure that he becomes the kind of candidate we really need to lead this nation”. Yet he also accused her of “terrible, awful crimes” and said her greatest achievement may have been avoiding prison for her use of a private email and personal server as secretary of state.
Trump will also tame the language of one of the most controversial proposals of his campaign – his suggestion to ban foreign Muslims from entering the United States.
As the pundits pick apart the speech and replay the sound bites, he may or may not get a bump in the polls.
Lawmakers backing Trump who have worked with Cruz in the Senate, or have watched his career in Congress, say Cruz’s move Thursday evening was hardly surprising or out of character. “Only senator Cruz chose to slip away with something on ‘conscience, ‘ and frankly, his was the only speech at the convention that was poorly received”, Manafort added.
He called to temporarily suspend immigration from nations that have “been compromised by terrorism”, a watered down version of his constitutionally questionable call to suspend Muslim entry into the U.S. Many delegates on the convention floor stood in applause after the remark.
That never materialized however.
Newt Gingrich soon came on and tried to fix the rift by trying to convince the crowd Cruz really had endorsed Trump.
“I think you misunderstood one paragraph from Ted Cruz, who is a superb orator”, Gingrich said.
He was reading the ultimate scripted speech, and a very long one at that. Cruz resisted repeated appeals from numerous delegates – his constituents – demanding that he back Trump. The crowd started chanting, “Trump!“.
Pence delivered on Wednesday night, using a crisp, clear voice to make the case for Donald Trump and articulate a much more reasonable argument against Clinton than his predecessors had.
Those people “would leave his office, as people often do after being with Donald Trump, feeling that life could be great again”, she continued.
He immediately went on CNN with Dana Bash to point out that his former and perhaps future rival had publicly broken that pledge.
As for the speech, “It was too cute”, Christie said.
“I want him to be stronger”, said Maria Espinoza, an alternative delegate from Texas.
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But was it more than what seems to be Cruz’s innate ability to piss people off?
