Thread: Ted Cruz: Trump Staffers 'Acting Like Union Boss Thugs' to Earn Delegates

Ted Cruz: Trump Staffers 'Acting Like Union Boss Thugs' to Earn Delegates

By INES DELACUETARA
Apr 13, 2016, 10:38 PM ET

Republican presidential hopeful Ted Cruz said Wednesday night that Donald Trump's campaign staffers and allies are "acting like union boss thugs" for attempting to intimidate potential delegates heading to July's Republican National Convention.

The Texas Senator made the comments during an Anderson Cooper-hosted CNN town hall meeting. Cooper asked Cruz to respond to Trump convention manager Paul Manafort's comments that the Cruz campaign is using “Gestapo tactics" to win delegates.

“It is bizarre," said Cruz. "Donald and his team, it's almost like they are subjects in a clinical course in psychology. The conduct they do, literally, they accuse others of doing."

Cruz cited reports that emerged earlier in the day on Wednesday, claiming that delegates in Colorado and Indiana are being intimidated by Trump supporters. He also brought up the fact that Roger Stone, a Trump ally, is threatening to reveal delegates' hotel room numbers if they decided not to vote for Trump.

"Violence doesn't belong in democracy, and the Trump campaign encourages it over and over again," Cruz said.

Asked about the feud involving their wives, Cruz -- with wife Heidi sitting next to him -- said he had never attacked Melania Trump.

"I have never and would never say anything remotely negative about Donald's family or kids," Cruz said. "On my end there's no truce to be had because we shouldn't be engaging those attacks.

Cruz, however, dodged Cooper's question about commenting on news that Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski won’t be charged for allegedly assaulting Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields.

“Law enforcement there made a determination about whether to proceed," Cruz said. "I'm not going to second guess their judgment. That's the way the system works."

Cruz also said it was "ludicrous" that Trump is arguing the will of the people would be subverted if he loses the nomination in a contested convention.

“It's a ludicrous argument," Cruz said. "There is one way, and there’s only one way that you earn the Republican nomination. That is you earn the votes of a majority of the delegates elected by the people."

http://abcnews.go.com/US/ted-cruz-tr...ry?id=38379985

Is it Cruz's idea to insult working men and union who belong to unions to get at Trump over Trump speaking up and out against the delegate system that Trump thinks is unfair in some of the states like Colorado where the people didn't get to vote?

That's not the "secret to success".

What has been revealed by this primary process is that in some states the system is rigged to over-ride the voters and for most Americans, that type of a system doesn't sit well. I've always lived in primary states where we vote at a real election and whoever wins the state in the election gets most if not all of the delegates or so I thought. I've learned this election through the revelations about the system coming out because of Trump that one state I lived in didn't actually work that way. I think best as I can recall that the delegates did vote for the winner, but now I'm learning that they were required to vote for the winner. How strange is that? It's just unsettling beyond end.

The Republican Party needs to have primaries in all the states. The states need to come to grips with this necessity. States can still have their own rules regarding "take all" or proportional distribution and what to do with the delegates of candidates who drop out and so forth, but at the end of the voting and counting, the person who wins the state with the electorate should have the most delegates at the convention. There shouldn't be this two stage fight to a) win votes and b) win delegates. It should be more clear-cut, if you win the most votes, you win the most delegates that are bound through the convention.

There are a lot of issues associated with the process, but Trump is right that the people in all the states should have the right to vote in their party primary and whoever wins the state should end up with the most delegates. The powers that be can still come up with their own peculiarities to address the needs of their state political machine, but at the end of the day it should never be structured in a way that a loser ends up with more delegates at the convention, because that just defies the will of the people of the party who voted, contradicts common sense, and defiles any concept of fairness in elections.

It's really hard to believe that we're even having this conversation in the Republican Party and incredible that so many Republican Party members, life-time members like me and my family who have been Republicans since there were Republicans, didn't know or realize this is how it's been working all these years. It's no wonder our party is the minority party.

I've often heard this statement, "I didn't leave the Republican Party, the Republican Party left me." This Republican won't be leaving the Republican Party, but I do understand why so many people have left our party. My plan is to stick with it and change or improve the party system so we grow our membership with happy members supporting platforms that stick to the proper role of government and solving real problems to make our lives and country better. That was the original purpose of our party, and I'm devoted to that original goal. And frankly, that is exactly what Donald Trump is doing, which raises the question of the week, why are people who call themselves Republicans trying to stop him?