He told the delegates to vote their conscience. One quick thought: Ted Cruz!
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For the third day in a row, what was supposed to be a carefully scripted show of unity was thrown into turmoil by unexpected events that have raised questions about whether the party can unite around Trump to defeat the presumptive Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, in the November 8 election.
In a speech a few moments after Mr Cruz finished today, former US House of Representatives speaker Newt Gingrich veered from his prepared text to defend Mr Cruz.
He used his prime-time address to the party’s nation convention as a rallying call to unify behind Donald Trump shortly after Ted Cruz refused to support the businessman, exposing again the fault lines created by Mr Trump in the party. Trump Jr. said that his dad was bring gracious. “He needed to toughen up like every other Republican loser of any nomination battle in the last 100 years since Abraham Lincoln and just suck it up, be a man and back the nominee that he was beaten by, fair and square”. Trump came out and the two embraced before Pence’s family joined him on stage, the evening ending on a happier note. He explained to the crowd that all the senator said was that they should vote with their conscience for anyone who will uphold the constitution. Wednesday night Pence noted the importance of electing a president who would appoint justices who uphold the constitution and several times mentioned how important his faith is to him. And if Trump does lose and send the GOP toward soul searching, Cruz allies see him as an elixir, an unblemished Republican who stuck to principle unlike possible rivals Marco Rubio, Paul Ryan or Mike Pence, who all have backed Trump.
Cruz has not endorsed Trump despite pleas for party unity from the campaign and party officials. The two had engaged in a sometimes vicious war of words.
And Clinton used it against both Cruz and Trump. Trump insulted the appearance of Cruz’s wife, threatened to “spill the beans” on her and even referenced a tabloid report that Cruz’s father might have been involved in the Kennedy assassination. That was shortly after Trump had promised to “spill the beans” on Cruz’s wife Heidi.
“Our party now has a nominee”, Cruz said to a rising crescendo of boos, even as a Trump plane flew by and Cruz, looking around to see it, joked, “That was pretty well orchestrated”, calling out to campaign manager Jeff Roe, to ask whether he had arranged it.
A range of Mr Trump’s policies including his draconian line on immigrants, his rejection of free-trade deals, refusal to cut government entitlements, lack of support for defence alliances and a late policy to break up big banks, are at odds with conventional Republican ideology. Cruz notably didn’t endorse his party’s nominee in his speech, offering only his congratulations.
He used his convention speech as the foundation for a fundraising email for his Senate campaign: “Will you stand with me by making an immediate donation $5, $10, $25, or whatever you can afford today?” Instead the night will be remembered for the exact opposite reasons thanks to Ted Cruz, the Texas senator who dropped out of the Republican race in May.
Pence called Trump, the flashy showman he met during the primary season, ‘a fighter, a victor’.
“Pence is arguably about the best Trump could do”, said Michael Tomasky, editor of Democracy, a quarterly liberal journal.
Trump may very well leave Cleveland with political momentum, though much will depend on his own speech Thursday ― one of the most-anticipated convention addresses in modern memory.
“I am deeply humbled by your confidence”, Mr Pence told delegates, still reeling from a night of high drama and political infighting over Mr Trump’s anointment as the party’s White House candidate.
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Trump has shown little concern for maintaining any modicum of political decorum.
