The morning after, Cruz wasn’t any more conciliatory. “I know he believes his conviction is so strong, but sometimes you have to understand that it is bigger than you”. And Trump’s own exposition of his foreign policy views was rattling allies at home and overseas.
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“I want to thank you for not politicizing this and for waiting until we were ready”, said Patty Sheehan, an Orlando city commissioner. But it is clear he’ll need more than that if he is to end his four days in the spotlight achieving more good than harm.
Sources also said that Trump will not pivot away from the controversial themes that worry the GOP establishment but have powered his grass-roots insurgency.
In an interview with the New York Times, Trump made it crystal clear: He is unsafe – to America, and to its allies.
Next, Trump praised the reporting of the National Enquirer, which had written a piece suggested that Cruz’s father had been photographed with Lee Harvey Oswald, President Kennedy’s assassin. “I can tell you, I’m not voting for Hillary”, said Cruz. And, again, what were the Trump people thinking, to allow this to happen, and upstage the message of their vice presidential nominee?
Cruz tried to link arms with Republicans at the party’s national convention Wednesday but was booed lustily by delegates when he ended his speech without offering Trump his endorsement or even saying he would vote for the NY billionaire. “He’d write a note to his assistant in his signature black felt-tip pen and request that the person be found and invited to Trump Tower to meet with him”.
He will represent the Republican Party on the ballot in November. If he does, then Cruz not only has hurt his own presidential chances, but his current job security. There is no evidence of a link between the two men. There reportedly were tensions between Jared Kusher and Christie, a closer adviser to the Trump campaign, with some sources saying Jared Kushner lobbied against Trump picking Christie as his running mate. “And she thought that it was very unfair to Melania, although, interestingly the press treated Melania very well because they didn’t think that it was her”. “We wanted to make sure we gave him the option to speak”.
But the lack of an endorsement from Ted Cruz was his main point of contention.
The former Texas Governor – and former Cruz backer – criticized Cruz as well. I am watching and I am listening.
“So to paraphrase Ted Cruz, if you want to protect the Constitution of United States, the only possible candidate this fall is the Trump-Pence Republican ticket”, he added.
“I don’t do anything unless I win”, Trump insisted.
Cruz is the one who, among other things, had orchestrated a 17-day government shutdown and called Mitch McConnell “a liar” on the Senate floor.
Pence made a plea for unity in his speech Wednesday night, but he found himself having to defend Trump’s foreign policy comments hours later.
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In an interview on Fox News, he insisted Thursday morning that Trump would stand by USA allies despite the remarks, but he added that “those countries must pay their fair share”.
