Thread: Convention Blasts Cruz For Not Endorsing Trump

Convention Blasts Cruz For Not Endorsing Trump
by Jane C. Timm and Kelly O'Donnell
Jul 20 2016, 11:16 pm ET

Sen. Ted Cruz walked on stage to extraordinary cheers, and walked off to deafening boos after the Texas senator and former Donald Trump rival failed to endorse the party's nominee at his own convention.

Cruz had signaled in advance he wouldn't be endorsing Trump. But the delegate derision for his refusal was hearty, heated, and unexpected, particularly after Cruz had earned hundreds of delegates and spent months ensuring his own supporters would fill the delegate seats on the floor of tonight's convention.

Cruz's speech was heartfelt and somber and captivated the audience, but when he launched into the policy prescriptions common at his own campaign events and his own immigrant family story, the crowd grew frustrated. "Endorse Trump!" they cried. "Trump! Trump! Trump!"

"I appreciate the enthusiasm of the New York delegation," Cruz said dismissively. This infuriated them more, and the Texas senator left the stage to deafening boos with a forced smile.

Before Cruz's speech was over, however, Trump himself appeared in the audience and gave a small wave, even as the boos were raining down on the Texas senator, who gestured back.

Afterward, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich came out and cleaned up a bit for Cruz, departing from his prepared remarks to say:

"I just want to point out what Ted Cruz said — you can vote to uphold the Constitution — there is only one candidate who will uphold the Constitution. So to paraphrase Sen. Cruz, if want to protect the Constitution, the only possible candidate is the Trump-Pence ticket."

Meanwhile Heidi Cruz, Ted's wife, got a police escort off the convention floor after the speech, sources said.

"It just started to get rowdy and crowded and they helped her get off the floor," a source close to the Cruz camp told NBC News. "Everything's fine."

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/201...-trump-n613756

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump 5m 5 minutes ago

Wow, Ted Cruz got booed off the stage, didn't honor the pledge! I saw his speech two hours early but let him speak anyway. No big deal!

https://twitter.com/realdonaldtrump?lang=en

I think these politicians like the Bushes, Kasich, Cruz, and so many others who can't get over losing are demonstrating what small men and little-minded people they really are. I've never seen anything like what's gone on in this primary and this Convention. But what it shows is the embedded self-interest that has cost our country almost everything. When you can't get over yourself, your loss, your envy, your jealousy, your "whatever", it means you don't care about the country, you don't care about our people, you only care about yourself, which is probably why voters rejected you to begin with.

Cruz Refuses to EndorseTrump at GOP Convention

Cruz Refuses to Endorse Trump at GOP Convention

As crowd boos Texas senator, Trump appears in arena





BY: Morgan Chalfant July 20, 2016 10:32 pm

CLEVELAND, Ohio—Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) did not endorse Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, during his remarks Wednesday evening at the Republican National Convention, despite chants on the convention floor calling on him to back the party’s candidate.

Cruz, who was the second-to-last Republican candidate for president to drop out of the primary, congratulated Trump on winning the nomination early in his speech. As it became evident during his remarks that he would withhold his support for Trump, members of the crowded began to chant, “Endorse Trump, endorse Trump!”

“I appreciate the enthusiasm of the New York delegation,” Cruz said, as video screens in the arena began to experience glitches, flickering. Cruz encouraged the audience to “vote your conscience” in November.

Trump entered the arena at the end of Cruz’s speech, causing the cameras to cut away from the Texas senator as he concluded. The Republican National Committee immediately cut to a video of Eric Trump, the candidate’s son, following the speech.

The primary race became nasty between the two candidates when Trump began targeting Cruz’s wife Heidi on social media in response to an advertisement circulated by an anti-Trump Super PAC featuring a photograph of Trump’s wife Melania posing nude. Trump also suggested that Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Cruz was under pressure to endorse Trump ahead of Wednesday’s events. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Trump supporter and former presidential candidate who was once considered to be a frontrunner for the vice presidential nomination, told CNN that Cruz would be “less of a person” if he did not endorse Trump.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Trump’s vice presidential choice, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, also delivered remarks later Wednesday night, though they were overshadowed by Cruz’s speech.

Gingrich said the crowd “misunderstood” Cruz’s recommendation that they vote their conscience and cast ballots for the candidate they trust to defend the Constitution because, he insisted, Trump is the only choice who will do so.

Pence, the final speaker, accepted the vice presidential nomination that he formally received on Tuesday. He described the Republican Party as “united” around Trump and praised the candidate’s foreign and domestic policy proposals.
“We cannot have four more years apologizing to our enemies and abandoning our friends,” he said. “On the world stage, Donald Trump will lead from strength.”

Trump emerged on stage to shake hands with Pence at the conclusion of his speech but did not speak.

Cruz wasn’t the only former 2016 presidential candidate to speak during primetime on Wednesday. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, who was once thought to be a favorite for the nomination before he dropped out early in the primary race, also spoke, urging the crowd to support Trump over presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. Walker originally endorsed Cruz ahead of the Wisconsin primary in April.

Walker drew a contrast between Trump and Clinton by casting the former as an outsider and blaming “liberal Washington insiders” like Clinton for the economic and security problems America faces today.

“Hillary Clinton is the ultimate liberal Washington insider. If she were any more on the ‘inside,’ she’d be in prison. America deserves better than Hillary Clinton,” Walker said. “That, ladies and gentlemen, is why we need to support Donald Trump and Mike Pence for president and vice president.”

“Last August, I said that any of the Republicans running would be better than Hillary Clinton. I meant it then, and I mean it now. So let me be clear: a vote for anyone other than Donald Trump in November is a vote for Hillary Clinton,” the Wisconsin governor continued.

The primetime program also featured a brief video from Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), who said he was not able to attend the convention in person because of the demands of his own Senate reelection campaign.

In the recorded message, Rubio faulted Clinton for being a “key figure in implementing Barack Obama’s disastrous foreign policy” and recognized Trump for taking the threat of Islamic terrorism seriously and committing to rebuilding the U.S. military.

“The time for fighting each other is over,” Rubio said. “It’s time to win in November.”

Trump was officially nominated in a state-by-state roll call on Tuesday evening, though some delegates opposed his nomination. Trump is set to deliver remarks on Thursday, the final night of the convention, though he already made a surprise appearance on stage of the Quicken Loans arena when introducing Melania ahead of her remarks on Monday.

The Trump campaign has been pushing back against criticism after Melania plagiarized Michelle Obama’s remarks at the 2008 Democratic National Convention during her remarks. A Trump Organization speechwriter on Wednesday took the blame for the incident, describing it as inadvertent in a statement.

Meredith McIver, the writer, said that she offered her resignation to the Trump family, and that the family had declined to part ways.

Update 11:19 p.m.: This post has been updated to reflect comments from the speeches of Mike Pence and Newt Gingrich.

We do not want TED or his WIFE, who is tied to Wall Street, NWO and organizations for illegal aliens into our White House! Remember that now we have to vet the WIVES of these politicians and the input and damage they can do.

Look at what Michelle has done, sticking her nose in other countries business, flying around at OUR expense, giving our money away. Look at the Clinton's! Bill giving her free range over policies early on.

Ted Cruz INSULTED Trump's wife first posting her pictures! Then Trump attacked Ted and his family back. And every one on them on the stage who was running attacked TRUMP since the 1st day he announced he was running for President! He also cheated Ben Carson saying Carson was dropping out.

After seeing a replay of Ted "lyin" Cruz swear that he would support and endorse Trump if he was the nominee, affirming his word and that he would not break it leaves me to believe the statement by Trump "lyin Ted" was appropriate and correctly placed. When you make a promise and break your word, you no longer have credibility or respect. Ted dug his own ditch last night and could have easily qualified or separated his endorsement from being insulted by comments made by Trump regarding his darling wife and father. His political star is so damaged now that soon it will begin to fall. And hopefully his and Kasich's refusal to endorse Trump does not lead to a close election and a win for Hillary. They still have time to change although they are becoming politically impotent.