Donald Trump did that toward the end of the presidential primary campaign, questioning whether the elder Cruz had ties to John Kennedy’s assassination. Trump supporters rushed to tell reporters what a disaster Cruz was; Representative Peter King called him a “fraud and self-centered liar who forfeited all right to ever again be considered for president”.
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He continued to decline to say whether he would vote for the GOP presidential nominee.
Then, Trump sparked more questions about his Oval Office readiness by suggesting in the midst of the convention that the US might not defend America’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation partners with him as president.
The first three days of this week’s convention e gathering bordered on chaos, starting with a plagiarism charge involving his wife Melania Trump’s speech and moving on to Texas Sen.
Ted Cruz speaks at the United States Republican party’s national convention in Cleveland.
Excessive regulation costs the U.S.as much as $2 trillion annually, he said. “It is such an honor to be here for a man I love so, so, so, so much!”
“What does it say when you stand up and say, “Vote your conscience, ‘ and rabid supporters of our nominee begin screaming, ‘What a frightful thing to say”?”
The speechwriter, Meredith McIver, said Mrs. Trump had read excerpts of Mrs. Obama’s speech to her as examples of things she liked.
“His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being – you know, shot”, Trump said during a phone interview with Fox News in May. One reason may be because these elected officials simply do not know Trump very well. “I don’t think so”.
On the eve of his address, Trump suggested a new course for US foreign policy, saying he would set different conditions before coming to the defence of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies.
He said he’d put aside his own ill will and reluctantly come to the convention and speak in support many of Trump’s policies, while criticizing his opponent Hillary Clinton, despite the fact that he never got an apology for the things Trump did.
Meanwhile, Democrats have a couple of strong Latino prospects for Senate, Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Loretta Sanchez of California.
“Are you going to vote for Trump?” he was asked.
Trump took the stage in Cleveland facing a daunting array of challenges, many of his own making.
The Trump camp also has assailed the GOP’s second-place finisher Ted Cruz, who in a prime-time RNC address last night refused to endorse Trump – and was booed off the stage by the nominee’s loyalists. Sure, there were some black, Asian and Latino faces at the arena, but they were so few and far between that the TV cameras seemed go back constantly to the same ones, as if they couldn’t find any others in the crowd. Of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump said: “I give great credit to him for being able to turn that around”.
Susan Hutchison, chair of the Washington delegation, said she confronted Cruz after his speech and called him a ‘traitor to the party’.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s take on the speech was less forgiving.
The conservative senator from Texas stood his ground on Thursday. He will be introduced by his daughter Ivanka, and all of his other children, except for his 10-year-old son, Barron, have also spoken at the convention. He insisted he would not be a “servile puppy dog”, especially after Trump’s criticism of the senator’s wife and father.
And, Cruz said in his parting words, “Can anyone imagine the nominee standing in front of voters answering questions like this?”
Down on the floor, his wife reportedly had to be escorted out by security after the crowd became hostile to her.
“These are the forgotten men and women of our country”, he said.
Ariel White, a Trump supporter, was pessimistic about party unity and upset about Cruz’s speech.
The vast enthusiasm gap between those who were already in Trump’s inner circle before the convention, and virtually all other party leaders beyond that, had already emerged as a central theme at the convention long before Cruz’s stunning gambit.
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The Clinton campaign said Trump’s message to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies was really, “Maybe, maybe not”.
