The woman, Meredith McIver, who has ghost-written for Donald Trump before, said it was her fault: Melania had read her some ideas over the phone; she wrote them into her notes; added them into a draft; and they wound up in the speech. “Stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the constitution”.
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Cruz didn’t tell the convention crowd that he plans to vote for Trump.
“If she were any more on the inside, she’d be in prison”, Rubio said to cheers.
But much of the attention is on Texas Sen. He did not say words had been lifted from the Michelle Obama speech and sought to stress the overall effectiveness of the speech. They booed and chanted.
The plagiarism charges threatened to overshadow Trump’s official ascent to the standard-bearer of a major US political party, and came just hours after the Trump campaign fiercely denied the overlap. He later told CNN that people were “physically approaching” and “berating her” as her husband spoke. Ted Cruz stubbornly withheld his endorsement from Donald Trump Wednesday night as he addressed the GOP convention, ignoring noisy pleas from delegates and instead encouraging Americans to “vote your conscience” in November. As Trump’s momentum grew with early primary victories, Cruz made a decision to fight back – labeling Trump a “pathological liar” and “utterly amoral” and claiming he can’t be trusted because of his past support for Democrats, abortion rights and same-sex marriage.
“If we’re not going to do that, why do we have elections?”
“He’s self-centered. It’s all about Ted Cruz”.
“Conscience”, not coincidentally, has been the buzzword of the Never Trump movement.
Some pundits interpreted the Cruz speech as an audition for the 2020 election. Why else would the Trump campaign allow him anywhere near the stage, especially on the night Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, was accepting the vice presidential nomination. Pence and his family, along with Trump’s adult children, greeted the billionaire as his helicopter landed by Cleveland’s picturesque lakefront. He touched down in a helicopter on a grassy field, an action movie soundtrack blaring from the speakers on the ground.
Despite the boos, Cruz wrapped up his speech, only to be upstaged by The Donald himself. His surrogates had spent large parts of the week sparring with OH governor John Kasich, another former opponent.
A delegate holds up a sign for Cruz in a sea of Trump supporters on Wednesday night.
As he would during his convention speech, the freshman lawmaker with a Texas-sized political ambition steered clear of a recommendation to back Trump at the afternoon event. Cruz first allied himself with the businessman, banking that Trump’s campaign would collapse and he would be able to scoop up his supporters. “No harm was meant”, McIver said in a statement. Patton, who is black, said she was proud to support Trump “not just in spite of the color of my skin, but in fact because of the color of my skin”. “We can choose a leader who will fight every day to make America great again”.
Both episodes raised questions about his oversight of his campaign, which gives voters a window into how a candidate might handle the pressures of the presidency.
Who is Carmona voting for?
The same conclusion prevails among many Republican delegates, regardless of race and ethnicity. Most probably didn’t realize he wasn’t talking about Trump or that, if you listened close enough, many of Cruz’s words – “Did we live up to our values?” – could easily be used to repudiate Trump.
Trump’s son, Eric, also spoke on Wednesday night, recounting the unlikely success his father had over the past year. Not endorsing Trump might backfire on Cruz or end up being his smartest move yet.
Then there was Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who sold Trump’s outsider status.
Trump says he saw Cruz’s speech two hours early “but let him speak anyway”. It marked a slight populist turn for Cruz. He attacked a “corrupt system that benefits the elites” and he urged the crowd to “cast aside anger for love”.
But in the end it was, of course, what he didn’t do that mattered. “He stands before you with the most primary votes of any candidate in history”.
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Boos and a chant of “We want Trump!” rose up from the crowd. But he didn’t and they booed him offstage.
