The morning after getting booed off stage and accosted back stage for failing to endorse Donald Trump, former presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz responded strongly to the massive pushback from Trump supporters, declaring he refused to be a “servile puppy dog” for Trump because he had made things “personal” by attacking his family.
In a meeting with riled up Texas delegates Thursday morning, Cruz defended his decision not to follow through on his pledge to support whichever candidate the Republican Party nominated by pointing to Trump’s shameless attacks on his wife Heidi Cruz and his father Rafael Cruz, whom Trump insinuated was connected with JFK’s assassination.
“I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father.”
Sen. Ted Cruz
“I’ll tell you the day that pledge was abrogated. The day that was abrogated was the day this became personal … I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father,” said Cruz, to loud applause. “And 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.”
In response to a man “making crying signs” in the back of the room, who told Cruz that he needed to “get over it” because “this is politics,” Cruz said forcefully, “No, this is not politics.”
“I will tell the truth. I will not malign, I will not insult, I will not attack, I will tell the truth. This is not a game. It is not politics. Right and wrong matters. We have not abandoned who we are in this country,” said Cruz, again to loud applause. “No, sir, I do not believe that is correct.”
“This is not a game. It is not politics. Right and wrong matters.”
Sen. Ted Cruz
Cruz underscored that he was not “eager” to come to the convention and support many of Trump’s policy positions despite never receiving apologies from Trump and his campaign for their malicious statements about his family, but that he did so out of “obligation” to conservatism and the party.
He also expressed alarm at the reaction of the Trump supporters to his call for people to “vote your conscience,” saying, “If we can’t make the case to the American people that voting for our party’s nominee is consistent with voting your conscience, is consistent with defending freedom and being faithful to the Constitution, then we are not going to win and we don’t deserve to win.”
Though the Trump campaign knew in advance that Cruz was not going to officially endorse Trump, having received and approved his speech beforehand, the campaign is now claiming not to have known what he would say. The faux outrage, a Cruz campaign source told The Daily Wire, was part of Trump’s strategy to “make Cruz a pariah” in the party.
“This was orchestrated by the Trump campaign to make Senator Cruz a pariah within the party,” the source told The Daily Wire. “We made this arrangement weeks ago regarding the speech. We said we wouldn’t cause trouble with the delegates, that Senator Cruz would give a speech, that Senator Cruz would not endorse. They agreed to that. That was always the deal. They saw the speech beforehand and knew what Senator Cruz would be saying. They offered no pushback on the speech whatsoever.”
Partial transcript via the Washington Free Beacon.
This article has been expanded and edited for clarification.