Ted Cruz booed off stage after not endorsing Trump

That is what many Republicans are hoping – to wake up the day after the Cleveland convention to discover that the Trump nomination was an all-too-realistic nightmare.

Donald Trump’s eldest son, Eric Trump, told delegates in Cleveland Thursday the division and chaos on the floor of the Republican National Convention during a speech by Texas Sen. Should Trump lose by a close margin, perhaps, Cruz could find himself subject to recriminations from Trump voters who feel that Cruz placed his own personal ambition above the good of the party.

(Which is ironic when you consider Cruz and Haley were mugging for the cameras following his big speech on Wednesday evening). McIver said she wrote down the passages and later included them in the speech.

“Everybody in that room … was behind my father”, the younger Trump said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell tells CNN that he “totally” disagrees with Trump’s suggestion that US support could be conditional.

Cruz halted his campaign two months ago, having outlasted all but Trump in a field that once numbered 17 candidates.

Despite a courageous effort by Newt Gingrich, the next speaker, to spin some of Cruz’s remarks in a more positive light for Trump, the flap inevitably hung in the air during Pence’s speech, which was actually pretty effective and earned him chants of “We like Mike”, as well as a lengthy ovation at the end, when his family joined him onstage.

Delegate Jennifer Fetters said Hutchison’s confrontation with Cruz “embarrassed our delegation”.

“That pledge [to endorse the eventual nominee] was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi, that I’m going to nonetheless come like a puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father”, he said, according to television station WFAA in Dallas.

Pence told Fox News that a Trump administration would tell USA allies “the time has come for them and for their citizens to begin to carry the financial costs of these global obligations”.

“Ted Cruz said you can vote your conscience, for anyone who would uphold the Constitution”, Gingrich said.

Pro-Trump delegates were furious about his speech.

Cruz’s address, in fact, validated a midafternoon online report that suggested he would run in 2020 – even if Trump was the sitting president!

Cruz told his fellow Texans Thursday that, aside from overcoming the family attacks, he needed to see more from Trump’s policy agenda to sway him to vote for his former rival. “Than all of the people who voted in the elections?” he said.

Michigan GOP Rep. Bill Huizenga, a former Marco Rubio supporter, called Cruz’ speech “a mistake”.

Republicans have used their convention to rally loyalists, but fissures have persisted after a brutal primary battle in which Trump defeated 16 rivals.

“I think in the grand scheme of things, it won’t make any difference”.

Hillary Clinton was lambasted too, with Cruz saying: “Hillary Clinton believes government should make virtually every choice in your life”.

Rick Perry eventually endorsed Cruz after ending his own presidential bid.

The third night of the RNC has multiple news threads, or Anderson Cooper put it: This was a “remarkable night in politics”. “I think it’s going to blow people away”. He predicted a “disaster” if Trump became the party’s nominee. The speech raised questions about why Trump – who has campaigned on his extraordinary negotiating skills – allowed Cruz to take stage.

“I recognize there are some folks here who are not my friends”.

There’s a surprising supporting actor at the Republican National Convention: the teleprompter. Cruz aides made clear that they did not support efforts to strip Trump of the nomination, but the activity of Lee and a key Cruz adviser – Ken Cuccinelli – in behind-the-scenes hijinks muddied the waters about where Cruz stood, especially since he declined to ever disavow the machinations.