And not in a good way.
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Instead of projecting party unity and reaching out to the undecided voters who will decide the victor in November, the conclave that launched the general election for the GOP has spotlighted splits and stumbles, chaos and conspiracies – a narrative that might be good for attracting ratings but bad for reassuring voters.
Trump’s son, Eric, told CNN’s Sara Murray that Ivanka will provide a different perspective than he and his brother, Donald Jr., brought earlier in the week and will highlight a doting father-daughter relationship.
And yet some in the Texas delegation, a majority of whom supported Cruz, angrily challenged the senator to publicly get behind Trump.
“I’m not going to get into criticizing or attacking Donald Trump, but I’ll give you this response: I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father”, he said. “Even if they don’t trust her, they have to like her”.
In many ways, it was a perfectly symbolic moment in an increasingly chaotic and disorderly convention. In some ways, it may have left GOP weaker than it was before the week began, including the prospects of carrying the crucial state of OH in the wake of an ongoing public feud with Gov. John Kasich.
Trump reinforced his position from the convention stage, saying the United States has been “picking up the cost” of NATO’s defenses for too long. The Democrats are hoping their own convention will be more successful. “It reinforced all the questions about Trump rather than putting them to rest”.
Pro-Trump delegates were furious with him. Manafort had said at a breakfast with reporters hosted by Bloomberg Politics, likening it to the 1980 election.
Although electing Trump and denying the White House to Hillary Clinton have been the dual orders of business all week, the Cruz slight was on everyone’s mind -and lips- Thursday. When will that moment happen?
Consider Day One, when Manafort called Kasich, one of Trump’s vanquished rivals from the Republican primaries, an “embarrassment” to his state. Marco Rubio, also addressed the convention’s third night, delivering lukewarm endorsements of Trump.
Or Day Three, when attention focused not on the intended centerpiece, a speech by running mate Mike Pence, but on the defiant remarks by Texas Sen.
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.
“So Ted Cruz took his speech that was done, was on the Teleprompter, said hello, then made a statement that wasn’t on the speech, then went back to his speech”, Trump said. Yet he also accused her of “terrible, awful crimes” and said her greatest achievement may have been staying out of prison. He cautioned against assuming the worst in an unpredictable year.
By any traditional metric, the Republican convention was a mess. “Polling next week will assess the net benefit of the convention to the political forces of the campaign”.
To be sure, other conventions have seen their share of discord.
There are strong indications from polls that the Republicans remain greatly divided. This week, he attended a “Big Tent Brunch” on the convention’s sidelines, hosted by the American Unity Fund, a GOP group that promotes LGBT rights.
“It could hurt many politicians’ images”, said Mark Jones, a Rice University political scientist who has studied Cruz’s career closely.
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As conventions go, this one has been chaos. Outside the party, police kept at bay protesters with signs reading “Queers Against Racism”.
