The boos that broke out on the convention floor during a rules vote on Monday became thunderous on Wednesday night when Ted Cruz refused to endorse Trump and told Republicans to “vote your conscience”. He just admitted it.
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Interrupted by chants of “Trump, Trump, Trump”, Cruz paused and said with a smile, “I appreciate the enthusiasm of the NY delegation”.
“And that pledge was not a blanket commitment that, if you go and slander and attack Heidi, that I’m going to nonetheless come like a servile puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife and my father”, he added.
This is a man, mind you, who was given a speaking slot in prime time at a GOP convention devoted to promoting Trump.
Trump added, “that’s just Politician 101”.
If that’s how they really feel, then Cruz’s request to “vote your conscience” would have registered as a bland statement of patriotism, instead of a tacit wink at those who are considering voting for Hillary Clinton (or Gary Johnson) instead. To me, it seems like he’s lurching towards the moral argument now because he senses that the ideological one wasn’t well received, even with his own delegation from Texas. It was a scene.
Vanquished Republican presidential hopefuls, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Florida Sen.
The crowd’s boos quickly switched to cheers as Trump entered the arena at the moment Cruz finished. “I will note, sir, that you might have a similar view if someone was attacking your wife-in fact I hope you would”, Cruz said.
It was somewhat dismaying, he said, that apparently some of Donald’s biggest partisan supporters, when they heard him say people should vote for someone they trust and they know will defend the Constitution, they immediately began booing. The National Review wrote that “there is no question Cruz will run” again, and he could stand to do better with a less-crowded field of candidates.
But that’s not what Cruz meant – at all. “Cruz and how to help himself in 2020”, Barbour told MSNBC. “Personally, I think Ted Cruz took the wrong way”.
“Our… survey of likely USA voters finds Trump with 43 percent support, while Clinton earns 42 percent”, a press release about the poll stated. Trump also famously insulted Cruz’s wife, Heidi, in March when he threatened to “spill the beans” on her. That including tweeting an unflattering photo of Cruz’s wife and alleging without any firm basis that Cruz’s father, Rafael, was involved in the plot to assassinate President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
Hutchison confirmed the incident to BuzzFeed News, saying she called Cruz a “traitor to the party”. He would not be a “servile puppy dog”, he declared.
Republicans have used their convention to rally loyalists, but fissures have persisted after a brutal primary battle in which Trump defeated 16 rivals.
Yet Cruz and his aides said he had submitted his speech to the Trump campaign for review in advance, and argued they knew it included no endorsement. And the real estate titan revealed that he had seen Cruz’s controversial speech ahead of time. He didn’t stray from his prepared remarks.
The comment put a finer point on the candidate’s previous criticism of NATO’s relevance, usefulness and increasing frustration that allies aren’t paying their fair share.
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“We need to unify behind a new president who can strengthen and protect and restore our nation for the next generation”, Duffy said. Even members of Cruz’s own Texas delegation confronted him at an appearance, with one voter shouting at the senator: “Get over it; this is politics!” And at least he’s got that.
