As happened during the first two days of the convention, the hall broke into calls of “Lock her up!”. Later, vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence came on to give a pretty good speech, but everyone knew the headlines would be about Cruz’s epic dis.
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Ted Cruz speaks at the United States Republican party’s national convention in Cleveland.
“We’re writing his political obituary-he’s dead”, Stephen Bannon, executive chairman of Breitbart News, the influential right-wing website that was an early fan of Cruz, said about the Texas senator.
“You know, he’ll come and endorse over the next little while”, he said.
Many delegates were less forgiving. “This is the worst possible thing he could have done”.
“My opponent has called for a radical 550% increase in Syrian refugees on top of existing massive refugee flows coming into our country under President Obama”, Trump will say, referring to Hillary Clinton, who is set to accept the Democratic nomination for president at the party’s convention next week.
Aides of Mr Trump’s put a positive face on the dispute and said the booing incident proved the party was in fact lined up squarely behind Mr Trump. It was a singular performance, defiant yet oddly in keeping with the Cruz persona: He is an unyielding ideologue who is more committed to his ideals – some say his own interests – than those of his party.
She watched the speech in the box reserved for Trump’s family, accompanied by her son, Barron, the youngest of Donald Trump’s children.
Having attended the Republican conventions since the 1960s, Mica said with confidence, “This isn’t a regular Republican group here”.
“The problems we face now – poverty and violence at home, war and destruction overseas – will last only as long as we continue relying on the same politicians who created them”, Trump will say. But then again, if the talking heads of TVLand had an ounce of political insight or a real understanding of the American electorate they wouldn’t have pre-nominated Jeb Bush months before a single vote was cast in a Republican primary or caucus. Security escorted his wife, Heidi, out of the arena after the speech, CNN reported. Delegates for Cruz and other candidates mounted a furious fight against rule-changing efforts from the campaign, repeatedly interrupting the normally staid procedural portion. The official program was marked more by who was not present than who was: leading lights in the GOP, such as all former presidents and presidential nominees, took a pass, save for former Sen.
Commentators suggested the ill-timed spat might damage Cruz’s long-standing dream of becoming president. Then, in a line not contained in the prepared text, “And like each of you I want to see the principles that our party believes prevail in November”.
This is my seventh United States political convention and I have never seen anything quite like this. Republican disunity was on display the previous night when Trump’s primary rival, Ted Cruz, stopped far short of endorsing Trump and drew loud boos. “Immediately after Dallas, we have seen continued threats and violence against our law enforcement officials”.
Gingrich, a Georgia Republican, followed Cruz on stage and argued to his audience that they “misunderstood” the senator, who already may be positioning himself for the 2020 presidential race.
Cruz did not back down from his non-endorsement Thursday, telling his home-state delegation he won’t vote for Clinton, but making no promise to endorse Trump. “In this election, there is only one candidate who would uphold the Constitution”.
Democrats aren’t overly concerned about a possible Trump dynasty, though.
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-With assistance from Joshua Green, Sahil Kapur, John McCormick and Steven Dennis.
