TED Cruz has revealed he refused to endorse Donald Trump at the Republican convention because the nominee trashed the Texas senator’s family during their nasty primary battle.
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The conservative senator from Texas stood his ground on Thursday (Friday NZT). That’s what they’ve been saying for years about Republicans in Congress which makes it all the more surprising that the GOP elites were so stunned by Donald Trump’s primary success.
Delegates were irate. Californian Shirley Husar, who just the night before had cast the Golden State’s 172 delegate votes for Trump, said Cruz should be ashamed of himself.
“I was dumbfounded when he didn’t endorse Trump”, Dallas delegate Mary Sue McCarty told FoxNews.com Thursday, on the sidelines of a rowdy breakfast session during which Cruz defended his decision. On Wednesday, a member of the Illinois Delegation was stripped of her credentials and removed from the convention after publishing a racist Facebook post.
We don’t know what Donald Trump and Ted Cruz said to each other when they met privately on Capitol Hill just two weeks ago – a full two months after Trump clinched the nomination.
“We are very fortunate to have both presidential candidates speaking to us next week”, VFW National Commander John A. Biedrzycki Jr. said in a news release. Trump wrote on Twitter.
I don’t think they were talking about the senator’s eyesight. “I will tell the truth!” winning back applause from backers. The candidate has provided relatively few, and thin, policy proposals. He congratulated Trump for his victory and encouraged Americans to vote their consciences.
“I’m not going to come like a puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father”, he said.
But Ohio has no chance of making a deal this year, because Trump came into the convention with enough votes to win.
The convention has been plagued by lapses from Day One. They may not like him, but he’s now the only candidate the Right has to defeat Hillary Clinton in November.
Trump prepared for his big night amid another flap over his commitment to USA military alliances, including North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.
In response to a question about potential Russian aggression towards the Baltic states, Trump told the newspaper in an interview that if Moscow attacked them, he would decide whether to come to their aid only after reviewing whether those nations “have fulfilled their obligations to us”. Ted Cruz and other state leaders protested his candidacy.
Trump and his aides have offered scant policy details at the convention. “She’ll get us the rest of the way”.
On the whole this convention is more subdued than any I have been to.
The kerfuffle distracted from the speech given by Trump’s running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who sought to unite the party with his remarks. “It was repugnant. There’s no place for racism or threats of violence in the Illinois Republican Party”, said Tim Schneider, state party chairman. And in some recent conventions the tone of those attacks has become more personal.
“This week we’re having some real anguished discussions”. “After this, I will never vote for Sen”.
Republican Pete King, a solid Irish-American, called Cruz, in no particular order, “a f**k”, “an a**hole”, “a fraud”, “a liar” and “self-centred”.
Pro-Trump delegates were furious about his speech.
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Mr Cruz’s wife Heidi even had to be escorted from the convention floor for her own safety as she was heckled by Trump delegates.
