Donald Trump says he’s “greatly honored” to receive the endorsement of defeated rival Ted Cruz, not that Cruz is using that word when acknowledging that he will vote for the Republican presidential nominee.
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Cruz’s show of support would come days after Republican National Committee Reince Priebus suggested he may block Republicans who don’t back Trump from running for the party’s nomination again. That’s even after Trump claimed he didn’t want Cruz’s endorsement immediately after the convention chaos.
Still, many of Cruz’s supporters couldn’t understand why he made a decision to support Trump after the multiple personal attacks Trump launched at Cruz and his family during the primary.
Cruz wasn’t the only flip-flopper – he said Trump thanked him on the phone, despite his earlier assertion he wouldn’t accept a Cruz endorsement.
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.
That could pose a problem for Cruz, who will be up for re-election in 2018. “The freedoms we cherish and the constitutional values and principles our country was founded on are in jeopardy”, Trump said in a statement.
The senator justified his about-face with the fact that a year ago he promised to support whatever Republican candidate was elected and also, while he has “areas of significant disagreement” with Trump, he believes that “by any measure Hillary Clinton is wholly unacceptable”.
“And Donald Trump is the only thing standing in her way”, he said.
Late Friday, Cruz shocked the political establishment by publicly backing Trump, only months after he pointedly declined to do so in a prime time speech at the GOP Convention and after a barrage of personal attacks appeared to poison the well between the two.
“I don’t believe I could in good conscience look my kids in the eyes and say I sat by” and let Clinton win, Cruz said. Trump certainly fanned the flames when he said Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and he disparaged the Texas senator’s wife Heidi in a retweet comparing an unflattering image of her to a glamor shot of his own wife Melania, a former model. Cruz could accomplish more on the Court than in the Senate. “He’s bold, he’s brash, and I think the support he’s gaining right now in the polls is because people are looking for someone willing to stand up to Washington”. Both lists that I’ve seen from the Trump campaign are fantastic.
He said Trump’s list “provides a serious reason for voters to choose to support Trump” and that Lee “would make an extraordinary justice”. Trump’s team has not confirmed if the GOP nominee is even holding full-fledged mock debates, preferring a looser preparatory style.
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The surprising decision to support Trump marks a dramatic U-turn for Cruz, who had referred to the real estate mogul as a “trainwreck” and a “pathological liar” who was not fit to lead America.
