Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz speaks at a campaign rally at Miami Dade College downtown campus in Miami, Florida, the United States, March 9, 2016.
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The long, divisive primary of 2016 played out in one final, spectacular episode on live television Wednesday night on the floor of the Republican National Convention.
Ted Cruz placed a bet Wednesday night that could define his political life.
“Donald Trump gets it”.
It was a brilliant clean-up act, and his speech went on to breathe energy back into the crowd.
The third night of the Republican National Convention was the craziest yet. Or at least that’s how I imagine it sounded in Cruz’s head when he went on stage, and spoke eloquently for nearly 30 minutes and REFUSED to endorse Donald Trump at his own convention.
“Donald Trump is standing with the American people”, Walker said. But his task became even more challenging after Cruz’s explosive speech, in which he implicitly suggested that Trump could not be trusted to protect the Constitution.
Cruz’s career will never be the same again. Cruz’s wife, Heidi, was escorted off the floor as hecklers shouted “Goldman Sachs!” – a reminder of where she works.
Also after the speech, Cruz was turned away from megadonor Sheldon Adelson’s suite in the arena, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
“I thought I’d be spending this evening with my friends in the in delegation”. But Cruz chose not to take Reagan’s approach and call for the ticket’s victory.
You’ve heard all the “lock her up” chants, and the base loves it, but Republican leaders aren’t so gung ho about putting Hillary Clinton in prison if they win the election.
Some critics saw the appeal for people to vote with their conscience as a vote of no-confidence in Mr Trump.
“In Texas, when you sign a document or a pledge that says you’re going to stand up and support your party’s respective nominee whether it’s you or not, you know that bond means something”, Buckley said.
Toward the end of his speech – as he spoke over the restive audience and at one point said, “I appreciate the enthusiasm of the NY delegation” – Donald Trump walked into the arena in preparation for his son Eric’s appearance.
Top GOP officials and the Trump campaign struggled to process Cruz’s actions.
Later in the speech, he urged: “Please, don’t stay home in November”.
Trump and his children were seated in the audience, keeping blank stares amid the whole scuffle.
“So, Ted Cruz is going to come along”, he said. It was for their father, who was set to enter the arena.
“Donald Trump was trying to unify the party and he’s done that and notwithstanding what Senator Cruz said tonight, the party came together”, he told reporters. “He’s tough. He perseveres”, Pence went on, still referring to Trump.
It was his Indiana Nice version of Trump’s “Crooked Hillary”.
Trump, certainly, appeared to appreciate Pence’s effort.
The focus of the race will remain on Clinton and Trump. Not with a candidate who has captured the attention of the country the way Donald Trump has. McIver, a speechwriter for Donald Trump’s company, said it was unintentional. He doesn’t tiptoe around the thousands of new rules of political correctness. He’s his own man and he’s distinctly American. “I can tell you this, I think Ted Cruz made a mistake”.
The heckling appeared to start with the NY delegation, which is heavy with Trump supporters.
It was standard fare for the Trump-loving convention.
Trump won the nomination on Tuesday with 1,725 delegates, followed by Cruz with 475 delegates.
Walker might call Laura Ingraham, the radio talker who had ginned up the crowd shortly before Walker took the stage, for advice. “You know it”, Ingraham said.
Pence’s speech energized delegates, reached out to independents and presented Trump in a more favorable light than even the candidate usually does.
Thursday, though, is Trump’s night.
He’ll deliver a speech that’ll be closely watched both inside the arena and on television everywhere. That the convention thus far has gone badly off-script only adds to the importance of the speech – and the pressure and opportunity Trump faces.
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As the night concluded, the New York Times published an interview with Trump in which the candidate broke sharply with decades of US foreign policy.
