{"id":170378,"date":"2016-07-20T20:50:22","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T02:50:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=170378"},"modified":"2016-10-12T13:10:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-12T19:10:56","slug":"furious-reaction-as-cruz-doesnt-endorse-trump-in-convention-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2016\/07\/furious-reaction-as-cruz-doesnt-endorse-trump-in-convention-speech\/","title":{"rendered":"Furious reaction as Cruz doesn&#8217;t endorse Trump in convention speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/video\/c\/embed\/f9a795c0-4ec7-11e6-bf27-405106836f96\" width=\"771\" height=\"434\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>CLEVELAND \u2014 Ted Cruz, in a highly anticipated speech at the Republican National Convention, offered no direct support for presidential nominee Donald Trump, setting off a furious reaction as he told delegates to vote their conscience in November.<\/p>\n<p>As it became apparent Cruz would not endorse Trump, the crowd inside the Quicken Loans Arena reacted with increasing anger. Recognizing the negative reaction from Trump&#8217;s home state, Cruz deviated from his prepared remarks to acidly comment, &#8220;I appreciate the enthusiasm of the New York delegation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2016\/07\/20\/ted-cruz-speech-republican-convention\/\" target=\"_blank\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Cruz&#8217;s remarks amounted to a decisive non-endorsement of his party&#8217;s party&#8217;s standard-bearer, with whom the Texas senator bitterly clashed during the primaries. By the time Cruz was done speaking, delegates appeared to be in uniform revolt, providing thundering boos as Cruz left the stage.<\/p>\n<p>His remarks, delivered in a primetime address nonetheless laced with themes of unity, are almost guaranteed to extend the long-running rift between Cruz and Trump, whom vanquished the Texas senator more than two months ago in a victory that paved his path to the nomination.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo those listening, please don\u2019t stay home in November,\u201d Cruz told delegates Wednesday night. \u201cStand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cruz only mentioned Trump\u2019s name once \u2014 toward the beginning of his speech, when he congratulated the billionaire on formally clinching the nomination Tuesday night. Beyond that, Cruz only provided a general criteria for whom should lead the country: \u201cLeaders who stand for principle. Unite us all behind shared values. Cast aside anger for love.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat is the standard we should expect,\u201d Cruz said, \u201cfrom everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While he came nowhere close to endorsing Trump, Cruz did talk up the party that chose him, saying there is a \u201cprofound difference in our parties\u2019 visions for the future.\u201d Cruz went on to drive familiar attacks against President Barack Obama and Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, saying she \u201cbelieves government should make virtually every choice in your life.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The most compelling parts of Cruz\u2019s speech, however, touched on a sense of unity broader than politics.<\/p>\n<p>He put the presidential election firmly in the context of social unrest across the United States, lamenting how \u201cpartisan rancor, anger, even hatred, are tearing America apart.\u201d He specially devoted a section of his speech to those impacted by the shooting earlier this month in Dallas that left five police officers dead and seven others wounded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCitizens are furious \u2014 rightly furious \u2014 at a political establishment that cynically breaks its promises and ignores the will of the people,\u201d Cruz said. \u201cWe have to do better. We owe our fallen heroes more than that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The intense reaction to Cruz&#8217;s speech rippled throughout the arena long after he left the stage. When it was Newt Gingrich&#8217;s turn to speak, the former U.S. House speaker sought to soothe the crowd with a positive spin on Cruz&#8217;s speech.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think you misunderstood one paragraph that Ted, who is a superb orator, said,&#8221; Gingrich told delegates. &#8220;Ted Cruz said you can vote your conscience who will uphold the Constitution. In this election, there is only one candidate who will uphold the Constitution. So to paraphrase Ted Cruz, if you want to protect the Constitution of the United States, the only possible candidate this fall is the Trump-Pence Republican ticket.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cruz placed second for the nomination in a formal roll call vote Tuesday night, with 475\u00a0delegates to Trump&#8217;s 1,725. But it was a bitter primary fight, and the degree to which Cruz would offer support to Trump in his speech was one of the most closely anticipated moments of the convention.<\/p>\n<p>Cruz reorganized his political operation earlier this month, and many in GOP politics believe he already has his eye on the 2020 presidential race \u2014 regardless of Trump&#8217;s fortunes in November.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day, Cruz <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2016\/07\/20\/trump-looming-literally-cruz-thanks-supporters\/\" target=\"_blank\">held a Cleveland rally<\/a> to thank supporters. He is scheduled to address his fellow Texans at the state GOP&#8217;s breakfast Thursday morning.<\/p>\n<p><em>Abby Livingston contributed to this report.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As it became apparent Cruz would not endorse Trump, the crowd inside the Quicken Loans Arena reacted with increasing anger, and Cruz left the stage to thundering boos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170388,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[708,3307,226,194,116],"class_list":["post-170378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-2016-election","tag-donald-trump","tag-presidential-race","tag-republican-party","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}