Cruz unrepentant for failing to endorse Donald Trump in Speech at RNC

Defeated Republican primary candidate Ted Cruz defended his decision not to endorse Donald Trump at the Republican national convention last night. The speech was widely booed by trump delegates, while 1000 cruise delegates sat quietly with their arms crossed. While the speech was not unprecedented, it was without precedent in modern times. Apparently Goldwater did the same thing in 1964.

Cruz - a conservative firebrand who famously read "Green Eggs and Ham" to the Senate floor to avoid voting on a budget, finished second to Trump during the Republican primary - was booed Wednesday evening in the convention hall when he declined to endorse Trump, instead urging the crowd to "vote their conscience."

This allowed Hillary Clinton to later tweet "Vote Your Conscience: Hillaryclinton.com/vote." New Jersey governor Chris Christie, himself a defeated Republican presidential candidate who had signed the same pledge, just sat on the floor of the convention with his mouth open, shaking his head. Christie is widely expected to be Trump's Attorney General pick.

In the most electric moment of the convention, a clamor broke out as it became clear that Mr. Cruz was not going to endorse Mr. Trump, pointedly snubbing the party nominee from center stage on the eve of Mr. Trump’s formal acceptance speech. -- NY Times. Paul Manafort said this morning that the Texas Senator had effectively ended his political career last night.

"I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father," Cruz told Texas delegates at a breakfast Thursday. During a contentious primary, Trump linked Cruz's father to the assassin of former President John F. Kennedy, and threatened to "spill the beans" on Cruz's wife Heidi.

"That pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi, that I'm going to nonetheless come like a servile puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father," Cruz said of his decision. In failing to endorse Mr. Trump, the Texas senator effectively withdrew his pledge to support the eventual Republican nomine.

Cruz drew all the attention away from a rather long, if Conservative speech by Republican VP Nominee Mike Pence. The Indiana Governor, it is rumored, would actually be in charge of foreign policy and domestic affairs. This according to the Washington Post, based on questions that were asked to certain other interviewed by rejected Trump VP nominees.

Also speaking last night were the Trump children, including Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump. They are expected to have a big role in a future administration, though it isn't clear what.

Thursday, conservative writer Laura Ingraham is said (by the liberal media) to have performed a Nazi salute at the Republican convention last night. Good luck selling that one, guys!

And oh yes, Melania Gate. Both Trump speechwriter Meredith McIver and Melania Trump herself have taken responsibility for 58 words from Michelle Obama's 2008 convention speech, that found their way into Mrs. Trump's speech. Reminder, both Barack Obama and John Kerry have, over the years, found themselves unintentionally saying the words of others. It's easy to do, and a reminder of the bottom line in politics: We're all human.