Ted Cruz calls his decision to back Trump ‘agonizing’

Introduced here at an ideas festival as the “Republican senator of Texas and a Donald Trump supporter”, Cruz recounted the key moments in Trump’s courtship of his coveted endorsement.

Cruz told a packed house at the festival UT’s Hogg Memorial Auditorium that his views best align with Trump and he’ll be doing anything that he can to make sure that Hillary Clinton doesn’t make it to the White House.

Cruz, seen hugging father Rafael and wife Heidi, said he has spoke to Trump on the phone since his begrudging endorsement, and the Republican presidential nominee offered no apology about his incendiary comments about the pair..

During their bitter primary fight, Trump posted an unflattering photo of Cruz’s wife, threatening to “spill the beans” on her, and floated the conspiracy theory that Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Mr. Cruz’s turnaround, which he said was after “many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience”, is also an indication of the thinking among many fence-sitters as election day approaches.

I have had many, many disagreements with Donald Trump, some of which you have cataloged. Asked whether he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin was a better leader than President Barack Obama, as Trump suggested, Cruz said, “I have no intention of defending everything Donald Trump says or does”. Trump during the campaign took high-profile, repeated swipes at Cruz’s wife and father – and even dredged them up during the general election campaign after Cruz had dropped out.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about me”. But Cruz was tempered in his defense of his decision to endorse. One person asked Cruz how the country can feel safe with a president who is “racist”, while the other person asked how Cruz can support a person who is “openly misogynist”. He then went on to warn about the danger of “radical Islamic terrorism” and said he worries that Hillary Clinton won’t defeat it.

The answer, he said, is that Clinton would appoint as many as four liberals to the Supreme Court. And according to Cruz, a Clinton presidency would mean that “the [Supreme Court] will be lost for a generation and that means my daughter’s rights will be lost for a generation”.

Cruz also stated that vilifying police is not helping the situation. Mike Lee, Cruz’s closest friend in the Senate, to the list. The most common candidate mentioned is U.S. Rep.

When asked if Cruz is afraid of McCaul, Cruz simply said, “No”.

“There was no option that wouldn’t result with people who are deeply, deeply unhappy”, Cruz said.