So an RNC official says. At this point Cruz seems to have the best of both worlds. He is speaking at tonight's convention yet he hasn't endorsed Trump and has not said whether he intends to.
There won't be much time left for him to do this before his speech.
Chris Christie-whose such a moral giant-is trying to blackmail Cruz, saying that Cruz has two choices:
1. Endorse Trump.
2. Or be discovered to be less of a person.
"Christie to Cruz: Endorse Trump or be 'less of a person'
"Not endorsing would prove Cruz is not who "he presents himself to be for the American people," Christie said."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/christie-cruz-trump-endorsement-225903#ixzz4EzgRmmtN
"Saturday Night Live nails it sometimes with it's political satire. It certainly got the Christie-Trump relationship right."
"If you want to sign the pledge, adhere to the pledge, and I just think you're supposed to keep your word," Christie told CNN's Jake Tapper during a forum hosted by the group Americans for Peace, Prosperity and Security. Christie was referring to the pledge all candidates signed last year vowing to support the eventual nominee."
"And I think that's part of the problem and part of the continued friction. So I hope Ted Cruz gets up tonight when he speaks at the convention and keeps his word and endorses Donald Trump. He should," Christie said.
"Christie then noted again that Cruz should do so, commenting, "especially the way he was kissing Donald's rear end for the first six months of the campaign, I mean all of us were kind of — right?" he said to laughter, as he referenced the joint Cruz-Trump rally together against the Iran deal on Capitol Hill last September."
"I mean seriously, they don't understand that Donald is not a politician. He thought Ted really meant it," Christie said. "He thought that Ted was being honest when he said all of these nice things about Donald. And then all of a sudden he starts attacking Donald and Donald called me and said, 'I thought this guy liked me.'"
Christie recalled telling Trump that Cruz "never liked you, are you kidding? He was faking it."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/christie-cruz-trump-endorsement-225903#ixzz4Ezh0fd54
Right, Trump is not a politician. As Scott Sumner says he's far more dishonest than a normal politician.
But here is a reason why Cruz might decide to live with Christie calling him less of a person and why he furthermore may well not endorse Trump tonight.
He wants to run in 2020 no matter what happens. If he would in theory be willing to run against a-God help us-incumbent President Trump-why would he feel he has to endorse him tonight?
Say what you want about Ted Cruz, but he certainly hasn't gotten where he is by being a team player.
"Cruz is already laying the groundwork for another run for president in 2020, but a top RNC official told Yahoo News that they expect him to run even if Donald Trump becomes president this fall. That would represent the first major challenge of an incumbent president from inside his own party since Teddy Kennedy ran against President Jimmy Carter in 1980."
“If Trump wins, you better bet your ass Cruz is going to primary him,” the RNC official told Yahoo News.
"And so the RNC officials told D.C. delegates that a rules reset would open the door to an effort by a key Cruz ally, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, to close primary contests in several states to independent and Democratic voters. Cuccinelli and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, pushed for the closed primary in the convention rules committee meeting last week."
"Closed primaries would exclude independents and limit the nomination process to registered Republicans, a more conservative voting group overall, which would favor Cruz."
"The RNC official told D.C. delegates that they had signed on to “a movement by Mike Lee and Ken Cuccinelli and Ted Cruz to further close the primary system, as it relates to 2020.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rnc-ted-cruz-president-2020-000000680.html
Ted Cruz's speech tonight might just be some fun as he's going to speak for the #NeverTrumpers who were crushed the last two days. And don't let any facade of unity fool you. There are the most delegates to vote against a nominee in many years.
https://twitter.com/SteveKornacki/status/755542459199856640
"The # of non-Trump votes is a reflection of many things, but mainly his refusal/inability to make peace w/foes, who didn't release delegates."
https://twitter.com/SteveKornacki/status/755546166045978627
Seems to me, this is inability to make peace with foes is another very beneficial asset to have in a President who needs to negotiate with Congress, and international diplomacy.
There won't be much time left for him to do this before his speech.
Chris Christie-whose such a moral giant-is trying to blackmail Cruz, saying that Cruz has two choices:
1. Endorse Trump.
2. Or be discovered to be less of a person.
"Christie to Cruz: Endorse Trump or be 'less of a person'
"Not endorsing would prove Cruz is not who "he presents himself to be for the American people," Christie said."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/christie-cruz-trump-endorsement-225903#ixzz4EzgRmmtN
"Saturday Night Live nails it sometimes with it's political satire. It certainly got the Christie-Trump relationship right."
"If you want to sign the pledge, adhere to the pledge, and I just think you're supposed to keep your word," Christie told CNN's Jake Tapper during a forum hosted by the group Americans for Peace, Prosperity and Security. Christie was referring to the pledge all candidates signed last year vowing to support the eventual nominee."
"And I think that's part of the problem and part of the continued friction. So I hope Ted Cruz gets up tonight when he speaks at the convention and keeps his word and endorses Donald Trump. He should," Christie said.
"Christie then noted again that Cruz should do so, commenting, "especially the way he was kissing Donald's rear end for the first six months of the campaign, I mean all of us were kind of — right?" he said to laughter, as he referenced the joint Cruz-Trump rally together against the Iran deal on Capitol Hill last September."
"I mean seriously, they don't understand that Donald is not a politician. He thought Ted really meant it," Christie said. "He thought that Ted was being honest when he said all of these nice things about Donald. And then all of a sudden he starts attacking Donald and Donald called me and said, 'I thought this guy liked me.'"
Christie recalled telling Trump that Cruz "never liked you, are you kidding? He was faking it."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/07/christie-cruz-trump-endorsement-225903#ixzz4Ezh0fd54
Right, Trump is not a politician. As Scott Sumner says he's far more dishonest than a normal politician.
But here is a reason why Cruz might decide to live with Christie calling him less of a person and why he furthermore may well not endorse Trump tonight.
He wants to run in 2020 no matter what happens. If he would in theory be willing to run against a-God help us-incumbent President Trump-why would he feel he has to endorse him tonight?
Say what you want about Ted Cruz, but he certainly hasn't gotten where he is by being a team player.
"Cruz is already laying the groundwork for another run for president in 2020, but a top RNC official told Yahoo News that they expect him to run even if Donald Trump becomes president this fall. That would represent the first major challenge of an incumbent president from inside his own party since Teddy Kennedy ran against President Jimmy Carter in 1980."
“If Trump wins, you better bet your ass Cruz is going to primary him,” the RNC official told Yahoo News.
"And so the RNC officials told D.C. delegates that a rules reset would open the door to an effort by a key Cruz ally, former Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli, to close primary contests in several states to independent and Democratic voters. Cuccinelli and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, pushed for the closed primary in the convention rules committee meeting last week."
"Closed primaries would exclude independents and limit the nomination process to registered Republicans, a more conservative voting group overall, which would favor Cruz."
"The RNC official told D.C. delegates that they had signed on to “a movement by Mike Lee and Ken Cuccinelli and Ted Cruz to further close the primary system, as it relates to 2020.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/rnc-ted-cruz-president-2020-000000680.html
Ted Cruz's speech tonight might just be some fun as he's going to speak for the #NeverTrumpers who were crushed the last two days. And don't let any facade of unity fool you. There are the most delegates to vote against a nominee in many years.
https://twitter.com/SteveKornacki/status/755542459199856640
"The # of non-Trump votes is a reflection of many things, but mainly his refusal/inability to make peace w/foes, who didn't release delegates."
https://twitter.com/SteveKornacki/status/755546166045978627
Seems to me, this is inability to make peace with foes is another very beneficial asset to have in a President who needs to negotiate with Congress, and international diplomacy.
Christie left off the third option for Cruz:
ReplyDelete3. Give a barn burner describing various creative torture and execution methods to be used on Satan (AKA Lucy Fur) herself: Hillary Clinton. That's sure to A) please the crowd immensely B) not require Cruz to mention Trump's name.
I think he's going to do option 3.).
I forgot benefit C): show Cruz to be a True Christian in the mold of Franklin Graham, Bryan Fisher and Jerry Falwell Jr. who would like to see us return to the 16th century, with theocracy, witch trials and torture chambers for heretics.
DeleteWhatever the case, as I pointed out in my comments to your prior post, Erick Erickson seems to have painted himself into the corner on this one: if Cruz wavers and sputters out some kind of feeble endorsement for Donald, then he's a "whore" by definition. But on the other hand, Trump supposedly approved Cruz's speech ahead of time... so will he go off script? This will be interesting.
DeleteWorst case scenario: Cruz does a two-minute hate on HRC, AND endorses Trump AND brings the house down and convinces the lions share of #NeverTrumpers that he's right (including Erickson and pals).
Pretty much every other possibility has a silver lining for us Republican haters.
I think I'll go ahead and do Cruz a favor and write his speech for him tonight:
ReplyDelete"Ladies and gentleman, I come here tonight in the spirit of Republican unity..." [clears throat, and then dramatically pounds his fist on the lectern while simultaneously shouting] "**BENGHAZI!!!**" [dramatic pause] "Benghazi. Ben.ghaz.i. -- Benghazi!" [another pause] "EMAIL--GATE!!! ... Emailgate. E. Mail. Gate. emailgate,emailgate,emailgate - Benghazi! benghazibenghazibenghazibenghazi... Emailgate!"
[continue improvising on this theme for another 10 minutes or so]
"... and so in summary, Benghazi **AND** emailgate!"
[dramatic pause, followed by pounding his fist into the lectern once again]
"***JUUUUSTICE!!!*** ... justice, justice Justice!.... Death Penalty!!!
The crowd goes crazy! As he waves and smiles to the crowd before exiting the stage.
This has the advantage of being:
A) Understandable to the crowd and the GOP base viewers at home.
B) Sticking with common ground for all Republicans
C) Revving the crowd up into a blood thirsty spasm of hatred
D) Being easy to improve with.
E) Not actually mentioning Donald Trump.
D) should be "improvise with"
DeleteMike, I'm enjoying Breitbart ripping into Ted Cruz. Funny!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/07/20/ted-cruz-vote-your-conscience/
DeleteWell Tom, did I not call it?
ReplyDeleteNever thought I'd say this but good for Ted Cruz
http://lastmenandovermen.blogspot.com/2016/07/ted-cruz-maintains-his-perfect-record.html
I didn't know there were #NeverTrump Ted admirers here as well:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/07/mic-drop
I heard some good jokes about the Trump boys on Bill Maher's special mid week show: Michale Moore called them Uday and Qusay. He also mentioned that #PatrickBateman (i.e. the "American Psycho") was trending on Twitter during Donald Trump Jr.s speech. Lol.
ReplyDelete