The announcement stunned many, given that only two months ago the Texas tea party stalwart had pointedly refused to back Trump in his speech to the Republican National Convention. Trump has frequently reminded his Republican critics who are gravitating toward Hillary Clinton or considering sitting out the race that the makeup of the Supreme Court is on the line, and even some of his most ardent skeptics in Georgia say they are backing him primarily because they are anxious about the judiciary’s future.
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In a post on Facebook, Cruz called Hillary Clinton “wholly unacceptable”, and praised Trump for a pledge to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices – namely, Utah U.S. Sen.
Hours before he lost the IN primary and suspended his campaign IN May, Cruz labeled Trump “utterly amoral”, “a serial philanderer” who has publicly bragged about bouts of venereal disease, and “a pathological liar”.
“For his part, Cruz said that he declined to support Trump because “I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father”.
Mike Lee – Cruz’s close friend and ally in the Senate – to an expanded list of 21 potential Supreme Court nominees. Donald Trump has added 10 new names to the list of judges he says he’ll choose from to fill Supreme Court vacancies if he’s elected to the White House.
“These are six vital issues where the candidates’ positions present a clear choice for the American people”, he stated.
“If (Hillary) Clinton wins, we know – with 100 per cent certainty – that she would deliver on her left-wing promises, with devastating results for our country”, Cruz wrote. The strong rhetoric came after the accusations Trump made about Cruz’s father and shortly before the crucial IN primary contest – which Cruz lost, ending his candidacy.
The examples at the start of this article are just a small sample of the vitriol exchanged between Cruz and Trump during the height of their primary battle.
And it didn’t escape notice that Trump had mocked the idea of Cruz endorsing him.
“This man is a pathological liar”. Trump yoked Cruz with the nickname, “Lyin’ Ted”, and called him a “nasty guy”, an “anchor baby”, “unstable” and “sick”. He even threatened to sue Cruz over it.
Heidi was not the only Cruz family member to be called out by Trump. However, when you dig beyond soundbites, Ted Cruz is actually coming out of this thing in better shape than before.
“With his endorsement of Donald Trump, a man who humiliated his wife and father, Ted Cruz is the literal definition of a cuckservative”, wrote the anti-Trump conservative columnist Jamie Kirchick.
Still, in the Facebook message that explained his conversion, Cruz provided a series of strong policy arguments for backing Trump.
Sabato sees Cruz’s endorsement as more political than principled. He’d “rather have the two candidates speaking to each other than speaking to me”.
Trump said after the convention that he would not accept Cruz’s endorsement if it were offered.
“He ended his post saying, “(I) f you don’t want to see a Hillary Clinton presidency, I encourage you to vote for him”. The key difference? Republicans who weren’t voting for Trump are now voting for him.
This endorsement will not help Ted Cruz become president.
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Cruz finished second to Trump in a bitter primary and for months balked in offering support, despite his previous pledge to endorse the eventual Republican nominee. Former rivals like Rubio faced a similarly hard choice, but they were all able to issue their muted, stilted endorsements with less fanfare and less waffling. “I look forward to working with him for many years to come in order to make America great again”.
