Cruz: Not supporting candidate who wages personal attacks

Lotze said that up to this stage of the election, Trump has not presented in a manner that felt presidential, engaging in feuds with other celebrities and presidential candidates, behavior Lotze feels doesn’t do anything to help unite the GOP.

Apart from the GOP leaders already in Donald Trump’s inner circle, the current elected official who has offered the party nominee the most extensive praise from the podium at the Republican national convention so far was Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.

Cruz’s speech digging at Trump on Wednesday was widely interpreted as an effort to position himself for the 2020 presidential election.

“And to those listening, please, don’t stay home in November”, Cruz said.

His crime? He encouraged the assembled multitude to “vote your conscience” and to “vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution”.

But the crowd’s forceful rejection of the “vote your conscience” philosophy is interesting. Tonight, Ted Cruz has no fruits. That didn’t happen, so Cruz may not have expected the furor his non-endorsement brought about.

“I thought it was classless, to tell you the truth”, he said. “It baffles my mind”. Among the many very personal charges Trump has made against Cruz has been this kind of constant suggestion that Cruz isn’t really a Christian.

“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!” Trump wrote.

The panel emphasized that Cruz’s support should not come as a shock to Trump. Cruz finished second to Trump in the crowded Republican primary campaign and congratulated the GOP nominee on his victory.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) afterward said he wasn’t surprised by Cruz’s actions. Again, we are seeing the amateurishness of the Trump effort, which doesn’t mean he can’t win, but does mean he keeps swinging and missing and the convention is the last time he will know in advance that there is a slow pitch over the plate coming his way.

Cruz’ actions drew condemnation from Republicans, who questioned whether the senator had torpedoed his political future.

Watch Roland Martin and NewsOne Now’s coverage of the Republican National Convention in the video clip below.

After that episode, Pence, the IN governor and a favorite of conservatives who have decidedly mixed feelings about Trump, tried to make his mark to a nation that knows little about him. “Because he stole the thunder from Ted Cruz right when he was ending his speech”.

After losing that primary, Cruz swiftly struck his colors.

Social media was flooded with similar sentiments.

Cruz reaffirmed that he would not vote for Hillary Clinton, and it was unclear whether the Texans confronted him were more than a vocal minority.

But Cruz’s appearance left the arena unsettled for the night’s closing speakers.

What political news is the world searching for on Google and talking about on Twitter?

Popular radio talk-show host Laura Ingraham urged remaining holdouts – like the Bushes, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, and Cruz – to fall in line and support the party’s man: “All you boys with wounded feelings and bruised egos. you must honour your pledge to support Donald Trump now”. He said his father is the one candidate for president “who does not need this job”.

“This isn’t a team sport”, Cruz said at one point.

Former House Speaker John Boehner of OH, who had compared Cruz to the devil, responded by remarking: “Lucifer is back”, his spokesman said on Twitter. But he says the court case hasn’t hurt his standing with Trump. The Trump campaign would struggle to arrange a two-car funeral.

Last night should have belonged to Gov. Mike Pence, whose speech accepting the nomination for the Republican Party for the vice presidency concluded the evening’s festivities.

Trump, well known to Americans as a reality TV star, has upset many in the Republican establishment with his free-wheeling style, frequent insults to rivals and controversial policy proposals such as imposing a temporary ban on Muslims entering the country and building a wall along the border with Mexico.