Cruz Campaign Manager: Chris Christie ‘Turned Over His Political Testicles Long Ago’

There was quite a bit of political theatre here in Cleveland Wednesday night at the Republican National Convention – and at the center of it was Senator Ted Cruz.

Speaking to a passionate but divided Texas delegation, Cruz said the unconditional support for the GOP nominee that he had promised earlier this year disappeared “the day this became personal”.

During the primary campaign, Trump sent out Twitter messages threatening to “spill the beans” about Cruz’s wife, Heidi, and Trump implied that Cruz’s father, had been photographed with Lee Harvey Oswald, the assassin who killed President John F. Kennedy.

Ted Cruz says he won’t vote for Hillary Clinton, but he’s not promising to endorse Donald Trump, “like a servile puppy dog”.

Ted Cruz, R-Texas, on Thursday faced a blowtorch of criticism after he first spoke at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland Wednesday night and did not endorse the party’s nominee, Donald Trump, then doubled down in a meeting with the Texas delegation. He said Cruz selfishly took advantage of a divided party where even many leaders remain opposed to the bombastic developer from Manhattan. He vowed to continue to do the right thing “whether or not it is politically helpful or convenient”.

Wrong. After congratulating Trump for winning the nomination, Cruz urged the crowd, and millions watching on TV, “If you love our country, stand and speak and vote your conscience“. His daughter Ivanka Trump is second, businessman Tom Barrack came in third, Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. was fourth and PayPal founder Peter Thiel came in fifth. If Trump does lose, will Cruz-by withholding his endorsement and his assistance-be blamed by Trump supporters, and Trump agnostics, for contributing to his defeat?

But many powerful forces are pushing Republicans toward disunity. Even if you think – or want – him to fall, you sort of have to admire that he’s willing to step out on the wire at all.

I am highly disappointed.

Trump is a divisive figure, distant from many Republicans in policies and repugnant to others because of his rhetoric. “I promise you, I was not eager to do this”, Cruz said.

Cruz was entirely unrepentant. Trump himself tweeted that Cruz had been “booed off the stage”.

The sign outside the ballroom door featured an Abraham Lincoln quote: “A house divided against itself can not stand”. “The only choice is a Trump-Pence Republican ticket”.

Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas, Arkansas and Louisiana were the top five states searching for “Ted Cruz booed”, according to Google.

He said he saw the text of Cruz’s speech two hours before it was delivered but thought, “let him speak anyway”. In closed primary states, Trump did better with people who told exit pollsters they were Republican than those who identified as independents (though they were, by definition, registered Republicans) most of the time – and the margins by which he did better were bigger.

But his allies made their displeasure clear. “They knew what that meant”, Manafort told a news conference. “That’s what disgusts people out in the audience about politicians”.

“I hope you’ll allow me to talk to you about what’s really at stake here”, Cruz warned, illustrating an image which draws a parallel between the Trump campaign and the word evil, “we live in a world where so many others have had their lives destroyed by evil, in places like Orlando and Paris and Nice and Baton Rouge”.