Senator Ted Cruz is already fundraising off his much ballyhooed decision not to endorse Donald Trump from the stage of the Republican National Convention.
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Trump will hope to put a wretched party convention behind him, one that has been dogged by scandal and rare shows of Republican discord.
“Who would’ve believed that when we started this journey on June 16th last year, we, and I say we, because we are a team, would have received nearly 14 million votes, the most in the history of the republican party and that the republican party would get 60% more votes than it received 8 years ago, who would’ve believed this, who would’ve believed this”, Trump said.
“My message is things have to change and they have to change right now”, Trump said to big applause. And, if Trump goes down to defeat in November – and it’s safe to say everyone in that group believes he will – Cruz will have serious I-told-you-so cred. “And then at the last minute, once he said, ‘vote your conscience, ‘ I blew a gasket”. “Vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution”.
As it became increasingly clear that he was not going to endorse Trump or even mention him in more than passing, a segment of the crowd grew restless, then angry, and started booing and heckling.
Cruz reiterated to Texas Republicans that he is still upset about personal insults from the Trump campaign about the senator’s wife and his father. Trump gets it. The primary was bruising, and Cruz has ambitions for the 2020 election that would be damaged if he backed away from his critiques of Trump. That’s why Trump invited Cruz to the convention.
According to CNN, Cruz didn’t back down at a raucous appearance Thursday morning, telling members of the Texas delegation in Cleveland: “I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father”. Trump said of Cruz, who made headlines for refusing to endorse the party outsider during his speech Wednesday night. “I would never support him on anything”, Wiegert said.
“If we’re not going to do that, why do we have elections?” That includes the votes of Ted Cruz and his supporters.
The booing was so intense the Trump campaign encouraged its many staffers on the convention floor to try to calm the delegates down, said a Trump aide speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal campaign discussions.
“Americans watching this address tonight have seen the recent images of violence in our streets and the chaos in our communities”, he will say. He finished a distant second in the delegate accumulation during the Republican nominating process.
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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?”
