The question over Texas Senator Ted Cruz’s political future arises following his speech at the Republican National Convention.
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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will try to restore order to his convention on Thursday with a prime-time speech after rival Ted Cruz drew boos for refusing to endorse him.
“I’m not going to vote for Hillary”, she said. Trump, instead, channeled another Republican: Richard Nixon.
Trump talked of using building blocks while playing on the floors of the suites of her dad’s buildings, and said her father taught her the importance of “a strong ethical compass”. He also declined to say he would vote for Trump.
“For more than a year”, she said of his run for the presidency, “Donald Trump has been the people’s champion”.
Asked by CNN’s Jake Tapper after the speech whether Trump’s remarks were dark, campaign chairman Paul Manafort signaled Trump truly does see the country as desperately needing saving.
At the same time, Trump said Cruz broke the pledge that all the GOP primary contenders for president made to support the eventual nominee.
“As long as we are led by politicians who will not put America First, then we can be assured that other nations will not treat America with respect – the respect that we deserve”, he said.
Donald Trump laid out stark differences between his agenda and that of Clinton.
But Cruz’s appearance left the arena unsettled for the night’s closing speakers. You couldn’t even hear the last two paragraphs of Cruz’s speech because the booing had reached such a crescendo!
I was in the convention hall and the crowd’s reaction was unbelievable.
Trump’s speech came after PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel told the audience he is “proud to be gay” and urged the GOP to drop its “fake culture wars”. “She was fine. She said people were yelling” at her, but that “it was silly”, Cruz adviser Jeff Roe said Thursday afternoon at an event in Cleveland hosted by Politico.
Drawing a contrast with Clinton’s campaign slogan “I’m with her”, he declared: “I am with you”, Fox News said.
“Everybody knew about the pledges”. “If they fulfill their obligations to us, the answer is yes”, he said. “As far as the contract was concerned, he was in violation, not anybody else”. Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani called Cruz “a disloyal Republican”. Clinton is expected to announce her Vice President in the coming days.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, in a statement, diplomatically said: “There were some mixed feelings and some hurt feelings in the Texas delegation today”.
“I was Cruz’s Texas chair”, Patrick said. “But I have been very clear”. Trump called for a much more activist government – intervening regularly in worldwide economics, cracking down ferociously on illegal immigration and even taking special care to prevent LGBT Americans from targeted attacks. “See, to me, that’s dishonorable”.
Cruz’s speech has split some convention delegations.
“Ted Cruz is still raising money”. Then they started cheering for Pence. And it went on and on until – Cruz tried to continue his speech. Cruz took a shot at Republican leaders and former presidential candidates who avoided the convention.
The Texan argued that the “politically easy option” would be to back the nominee no matter who it might be, but insisted: “This is not a game, it is not politics”. There are a bunch of people who did that. And the shirts appeared to be selling-more than one Trump supporter was spotted in the latter shirt milling around the convention site. “And damn it, if that’s the price, I ain’t going to do it”.
Mrs. Trump was in the arena to watch her husband give his acceptance speech, perhaps the biggest speech of his very public life.
As president, Trump said he would defend allies against Russian aggression only after first ensuring they had met their financial commitments. “The man has no class”. He said the party needs to “stand for shared principles” if Republicans want to win in November, but he also vowed not to speak negatively about Trump/Washington Post. The ad was put out by a PAC with no official ties to the Cruz campaign, but Trump said Friday that he doesn’t buy that.
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He added that Trump “connected with the common man, of which I am one”.
