Texas

Ted Cruz Addresses Texas Delegation Breakfast FULL 7/21/16

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• published: 21 Jul 2016
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During his remarks before the Texas Republican delegation Thursday morning, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz defiantly defended his Wednesday night convention speech in which he declined to endorse Donald Trump for president. One angry Trump supporter in the audience asked Cruz why he wasn’t honoring his pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee. “I will tell you, when I stood on that debate stage and they asked every candidate there, ‘If you don’t win, will you support the nominee,’ I raised my hand and I raised my hand enthusiastically with full intention of doing exactly that,” Cruz responded. “And I’ll tell you the day that pledge was abrogated,” he continued. “The day that was abrogated was the day this became personal.” Cruz insisted that he wasn’t there to attack or criticized Donald Trump. “But I’ll just give you this response: I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father. 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.’” “This is politics, you got to get over it,” yelled an angry Trump supporter. “No, this is not politics,” Cruz retorted. “I will tell the truth. I will not malign, I will not insult, I will tell the truth. This is not a game, this is not politics. Right and wrong matters. We have not abandoned who we are in this country.”After getting booed during his address to the Republican National Convention Wednesday night, Ted Cruz this morning defended his decision not to endorse Donald Trump after the real estate mogul’s attacks on his family during the primary campaign. “I am not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and attacks my father,” Cruz told the Texas delegation at a breakfast in Cleveland. He added: “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 puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife and maligning my father." Further defending his RNC speech Wednesday night, in which declined to endorse the party’s nominee, Cruz said Trump knew the contents of his speech prior to its delivery, including the absence of an endorsement. "He didn't ask me to endorse and, indeed, three days ago I talked on the phone with him and told him, ‘I'm not going to endorse you,’" Cruz said, defending his non-endorsement speech. Cruz went on to characterize his speech Wednesday night as an “outline” of how to win the election in November and said Republicans won’t win if the "dominant word" Americans hear between now and then is "Trump." Cruz Booed off RNC Stage After Failing to Endorse Trump Just before taking the stage this morning, ABC News’ Jonathan Karl asked Cruz whether he had “any regrets about last night.” The Texas senator declined to answer, saying simply, "I came here to address the Texas delegation." As Cruz took the podium, he received a hostile reception from some people in the Texas delegation. One delegate stood up and held a sign that read "Cruz-Clinton,” and others broke into chants of “Trump! Trump! Trump!" In beginning his remarks today, Cruz said, “I recognize there are some folks here and elsewhere at the convention who are not happy with me. That’s OK." He called it "troubling" that he was booed by "partisans" when he told the convention to vote for candidates in whom they believe. “What I wanted to do last night is lay out the principles I believe we stand for as Republicans,” he went on to say. “In that speech last night I did not say a single negative word against Donald Trump.”