Cruz rankled Republicans, and was heartily booed, after urging delegates to “vote your conscience” rather than explicitly calling for them to support Trump.
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Although Cruz has so far declined to endorse Trump – his rival in the Republican primary – in the presidential race, he clarified to Texas Republican delegates in Cleveland on Thursday that he will not vote for Clinton in November. And he also thinks that Cruz’s supporters in the arena were dumbfounded by the boos and and shouts of “endorse Trump” that greeted the Texas senator. “Ted Cruz said you can vote your conscience for anyone who will uphold the Constitution”.
Ricketts, who is with the Nebraska delegation Thursday, noted that his Republican rivals endorsed his candidacy after a bitter gubernatorial primary in 2014 – and Cruz needs to do the same. Is it? * Did Melania Trump lift paragraphs from first lady’s speech?
Roe also insisted that Cruz “didn’t sign a pledge to support a nominee by convention”, and that by historical standards, his speech was hardly a condemnation of the nominee. The pledge was to keep Trump from bolting on the party, and using his status as a Republican candidate to fuel an independent bid. He boiled it down to a choice between Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Most Republicans who still feel uneasy about Trump speak in vague terms about what might happen after November. He wanted to come to the convention, salute the delegates who supported him and give what sounded like an acceptance speech – as if he had won the nomination after all.
But the convention briefly erupted in chaos on Monday (Tuesday NZT) when opponents of Trump stormed out of the room and others chanted in a failed attempt to force a vote opposing his candidacy.
Goldstone told us in a phone interview that he never claimed the man in the picture with Oswald was definitely Rafael Cruz, and he called Trump’s unqualified assertion that it is Cruz “stupid”. You say some nice things about me. “Cruz accomplished what the Trump campaign has been unable to do”, Republican analyst Nicolle Wallace said on “Today” this morning.
But in this case, I suspect the reason was simpler and more personal. Our country has a lot of problems.
On Wednesday night in Cleveland, it looked like we might return to the conventions of a normal convention. “I think it was weak”.
Trump then added that Cruz “never denied” that one of the men in the photo was his father. When asked if he interpreted Cruz’s declaration this way – “that he was saying vote your conscience and that applies to supporting Trump” – King responded, “Well sure”.
Maria Farias, vice chairwoman of the Bexar County GOP, said she did not buy Cruz’s reluctance to back Trump because he attacked the Cruz family. “I do take it personally that they are making themselves the issues rather than purity, rather than the good of the whole”.
Now we finally get to the main event – Trump’s speech tonight accepting the GOP presidential nomination.
Cruz, known as a ideologue of the conservative Tea Party movement who strongly favours small government, has been a controversial figure in the party himself, upsetting fellow Republicans in Congress by plowing his own furrow. The Trump forces and the RNC did not need to offer such visibility.
“I always heard he didn’t have that many friends in Washington DC”.
Trump said he will overhaul tax laws and energy rules, get rid of regulations and decrease taxes, while offering few specifics. “They (Cruz supporters) just wouldn’t go away”.
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The overall tone of the tweets was more positive than negative, at a ratio of about 2.5 to 1, according to social media analytics firm Zoomph.
