Cruz stunned conventiongoers Wednesday night with a prime-time address that fell well short of endorsing the nominee.
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“To those listening, please don’t stay home in November”, Cruz told delegates.
As he continued speaking, and the crowd began to realize that an endorsement seemed less likely, the cheers that marked the early part of the speech became boos. “Republicans, Democrats and independents who helped build North Atlantic Treaty Organisation into the most successful military alliance in history would all come to the same conclusion: Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit and fundamentally ill-prepared to be our commander in chief”.
Mr Trump is now the driver of the party’s success. At the first GOP debate on August 6, Trump said he wouldn’t rule out a third-party run.
He did not mention the candidate’s name at all in the rest of his speech, in which he echoed Mr. Trump on a range of issues, such as fighting Islamic terrorism, protecting the borders of the country by “building a wall”, and destroying the “corrupt elite political establishment”. “We had a fair process and Donald Trump is the nominee”.
“This was my mistake, and I feel bad for the chaos I have caused”, said the staffer, Meredith McIver.
So did Cruz sign the pledge?
Wednesday night Cruz put his stamp of approval on their rebellion.
GOP operatives and Trump allies said they expect a significant investment in the Keystone State this fall, both in terms of money and campaign surrogates.
“You see this room when people like to make the story and create the dialogue about disunity”, Trump Jr. said. He predicted that Texans won’t forget Cruz turning his back on the party’s nominee.
The more cautious strategy would have been to endorse Trump as some others have done this week, because if Trump loses by a small margin, Cruz could find himself with even fewer friends in the party than he has now, as many Republicans would no doubt argue that his personal petulance and anger toward Trump contributed to a narrow loss.
“I committed at the outset, I will support the Republican nominee, whoever it is”.
Good morning, and welcome to the Guardian’s campaign live blog, coming at you live from Cleveland, Ohio, the site of the long-anticipated Republican National Convention, now in its fourth and final day.
But he urged the group to “follow our conscience”, “unite behind liberty” and “empower the grassroots” – all signals to the deep organization Cruz assembled in finishing second to Trump to be ready to jump back into action in four years.
The gathering’s open secret was that Cruz came to audition for 2020 – an ambition that largely counts on Trump losing this year.
But Hillary Clinton attempted to seize the moment by referring to the Cruz speech on Twitter.
A week later, Cruz told conservative talk show host Glenn Beck that picking a presidential candidate “is not a choice that we as voters have to make today”. But it’s not the same thing as a legal contract. “It’s politician 101, right?”.
Emory University law professor Michael Kang said the oaths create political pressure but not much more. “All he had to do was say “Trump” and he used the dog whistle for ‘conscience.’ A very disappointing message”, Ash texted.
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“Of course, Trump has a telling point here”, Ornstein said.
