The apparent omission appeared to irritate some delegates however who chanted “we want Trump” as he delivered his address and booed him as he walked off the stage for apparently not endorsing his party’s nominee.
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“I think (she’s) the best thing he’s got going and his kids if you want to know the truth.” he continued during the almost 15-minute ramble about Cruz. “Just, Ted, stay home, relax, enjoy yourself”.
Cruz, in Georgia on Friday to campaign for a Republican congressional candidate, never mentioned Trump but received a standing ovation upon his entrance and again when he mentioned “a little-noticed talk that I gave in Cleveland”.
In May, Trump had said to Fox News, “You know, his father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being – you know, shot…Right prior to his [Kennedy’s] being shot, and nobody even brings it up”.
“I’m saying just to clear this up”, Trump said in another instance.
Trump added that he thinks Rafael is “a lovely guy”. “Now Ted never denied that it was his father”.
Trump then turned to justifying how, on the eve of the IN primary that proved to be Cruz’s last stand, he touted a story IN the National Enquirer tabloid that printed a photo that purported to show Cruz’s father, Rafael, with Lee Harvey Oswald. Trump’s remarks came on the heels of a Republican National Convention at which Cruz pointedly declined to support Trump. Many Tea Partiers and even members of Cruz’s own inner circle are very upset with his snub.
Trump devoted a significant portion of Friday’s event, billed as a thank you to convention staff and organizers, to attacking his former primary rival.
He also declared that, two days after Cruz was loudly booed at the Republican National Convention for not endorsing the new nominee, he would never accept the Texas senator’s backing.
Cruz’s speech energized a mixed Virginia Delegation to rally behind Donald Trump.
While Cruz’s theory on Trump’s inevitable flame-out didn’t materialize in the primaries, after Wednesday night’s speech, Cruz is now staking his political career on a Trump collapse. “See, to me, that’s dishonorable”. At the time, Cruz criticized Trump for involving his wife and Trump’s responded by accusing a super PAC affiliated with Cruz of sending a risque photo of Melania Trump to Utah voters.
Despite Trump’s claims to the contrary on Friday, Cruz and his campaign did in fact deny that the photo was of his father.
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He said that he had “nothing to do with it” and added that the National Enquirer is “in some ways well respected” and deserved a Pulitzer Prize for exposing former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards’ love affair.
