Cruz’s speech was another stumble at a convention marked by several missteps, including a speech by Trump’s wife, Melania, that included lines similar to those in a 2008 Democratic convention speech by President Barack Obama’s wife, Michelle.
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Cruz was booed as he pointedly refused to endorse Trump during a prime-time convention speech Wednesday night. That’s code for “don’t support the nominee”.
Cruz tried to make nice Thursday morning at a Texas delegation breakfast, but was challenged by several Lone Star State delegates who wondered why he couldn’t either get on the Trump train or stay away. Trump trailed Clinton by 12 points in last week’s Reuters poll. “But you know what?”
“They gave me his speech”. The powerful House Financial Services chairman added, “It’s time for all of us to put the primary in our past”.
When he addressed his home-state delegates, Cruz moved to deflect the criticism surrounding his primetime address, which was received so poorly by the crowd at the Quicken Loans Arena that his wife had to be escorted out by security. But that’s not all of it. Cruz is also banking on the idea that Trump will lose in such a way that it will cause a post-election reckoning by the Republican party who supported him. Asked point-blank if he would vote for Mr. Trump, Mr. Cruz responded that he is still watching and listening to the campaign. They began to boo, reportedly egged on by Trump operatives, and soon enough Trump himself arrived on the scene, glowering from the stairs, stepping all over Cruz’s moment. He slammed Republicans who would “attack as a traitor anyone who would question our candidate”.
Notably, Donald Trump’s speech accepting the party’s presidential nomination was rather tame in its criticism of Clinton – at least by Trump’s standards – featuring none of the references to “Crooked Hillary” that were a hallmark of Trump stump speeches for months.
On Thursday, Ivanka Trump said her father “will fight for equal pay for equal work”. In Cruz’s view, bashing Hillary Clinton and talking endlessly about email servers-Cruz’s convention speech was not to be interrupted by “lock her up!” chants-would not lead to victory in November. Trump, he insisted, has to talk about “freedom”.
Throughout his session, Cruz was heckled by members of his own delegation. Cruz, he hopes, will be on the other, the one principled man left in the GOP. But Cruz used the hostile room to his advantage.
He only mentioned Trump’s name once. “It’s for you to support the Republican Party and the Republican Party’s nominee”. “I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father”, Cruz said.
And then – and this is very, very important to Cruz’s massive gamble – that the politicians who stood with Trump will be tainted by their association with Trump heading into 2020.
“No”, Cruz said, “this is not politics”.
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“You know, he’s a man known for a large personality, a colorful style and lots of charisma…so I guess he was just looking for some balance on the ticket”. “Right and wrong matters”.
