But as it was clear Cruz was going to end his speech without endorsing Trump, delegates began to boo and some chanted “We want Trump!”
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Less than 12 hours after he was booed for not endorsing GOP nominee Donald Trump during his late-night speech before the Republican National Convention, Texas Sen.
Ted Cruz sensationally withheld an endorsement of Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, earning a chorus of boos from the floor before he was upstaged in a power play by the GOP nominee himself.
“I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my family”, said Cruz, who added he would not be “a servile puppy dog” to the Trump campaign.
When asked by a member of the delegation who he was going to vote for, Cruz repeated his standard line that he is watching and listening to make the right choice.
He did say he would not vote for the Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton.
Trump and his allies appeared to be insulating themselves from criticism that they had mismanaged their convention’s programming by allowing Cruz to take the stage when they knew in advance that he had no intention of endorsing Trump.
Some of the delegates continued to applaud Cruz’s talking points, but others broke into cheers of “USA, USA”, after one of the delegates, Geraldine Sam of Lamarque, Texas, demanded to know why Cruz pledged to support the eventual nominee, but now refuses to do so.
Trump also made suggestions that Cruz’s father had indirect links to John F. Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
His comments came at a breakfast for the IN delegation to the convention and were part of a chorus of criticism from GOP officials. “If I tell you I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it, or the kids lose respect”.
On Wednesday night, more than 2,000 delegates at the Quicken Loans Arena waited for Cruz to say something – anything – kind about Trump, but he demurred.
“I didn’t start anything with the wife”, Trump said Friday.
Then Trump bore in on Cruz, calling his non-endorsement “dishonorable” before revisiting the hubbub over the celebrity businessman March’s retweet of a post that juxtaposed an unflattering photo of Heidi Cruz with a glamour shot of Trump’s wife, Melania, a former model.
As for Trump, the nominee’s response to Cruz’s snub was characteristically flippant. “Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution”.
The episode has made it harder for Trump’s vice presidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, a favorite of conservatives who have decidedly mixed feelings about Trump, to make much of a splash.
“What does it say when you stand up and say vote your conscience and rabid supporters of our party say ‘what a awful thing to say?'” he asked.
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Yet for Cruz politics is at the heart of the matter as he eyes another run for president in 2020. He was the last of the 17 candidates I wanted to see win my party’s nomination.
