An aide for Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump took responsibility for copying portions of First Lady Michelle Obama’s 2008 address for Melania Trump’s convention speech on Monday.
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“To those listening, please, don’t stay home in November”, Cruz said. “So to paraphrase Ted Cruz, if you want to protect the Constitution this fall, there’s only one possible way and that’s to vote the Trump-Pence ticket”, he said.
Much of the day has been dominated by speculation about whether Cruz would endorse Trump, a man who once tweeted an unflattering picture of the Texas senator’s wife during the campaign and frequently referred to him as, “Lyin’ Ted”.
Ted Cruz was addressing a crowd on the sidelines of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland on Wednesday when he was upstaged by Donald Trump yet again.
“I want to congratulate Donald Trump on winning the nomination last night”, Cruz said.
Cruz said nearly nothing about Trump in his speech.
The boos stopped once Trump entered the convention hall.
The extraordinary scenes show how split Republicans are following Mr Trump’s controversial campaign, and were at odds with the later claim by Mr Pence that it was a “united party”. Trump officially clinched the nod on Tuesday, when delegates from across the country gave him the support he needed to become the GOP’s candidate on the November ballot.
As the drama prompted by Cruz’s speech overwhelmed the coverage of the convention, former Speaker Newt Gingrich offered to paraphrase the senator. But most didn’t. They began shouting, “We want Trump!”
“I can’t stand Trump”, she said.
For two days, the Trump campaign tried to brush aside any talk of plagiarism, calling the criticism absurd.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, another former presidential candidate, will also speak, but he is backing Trump. I’ve long wondered how primary foes who say horribly bad things about each other can make believe it never happened when the battle’s over.
A witness said one person shouted “Goldman Sachs” at Mrs Cruz in reference to her employment at the investment bank.
“Our party now has a nominee, and I don’t know…” he added before booing from the crowd interrupted him, accompanied by fingers pointing upward.
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As the party delegation and Trump supporters realised the embarrassment coming from a friend-turned-foe, they started booing Cruz, the loudest booing coming from the NY delegation.
