What Cruz Didn't Say In His Endorsement of Trump

[libertybele]

What Cruz Didn’t (Couldn’t) Say in His Endorsement of Trump

Have we shaken off the shock of Ted Cruz’s endorsement of Donald Trump, yet?

If not, I’d give this small consolation: Cruz will likely be asking himself “What have I done?” for a lot longer.

In an interview with the Texas Tribune on Saturday, Cruz refused to say Trump was fit to be president.

    In an interview with the Texas Tribune’s Evan Smith, Cruz said he endorsed Trump because the November election is a binary choice between Hillary Clinton and Trump. The junior senator from Texas and unsuccessful presidential candidate said he is voting Trump because he worries Clinton would appoint liberal justices to the U.S. Supreme Court and do damage to the country.

    Smith asked: “Do you consider Donald Trump to be fit to be president?”

    Cruz paused, then answered: “I think we have one of two choices.”

That’s not exactly an answer to the question, is it?

Are we feeling confident and comforted, yet?

Cruz was in Austin, at the Texas Tribune festival on Saturday. The reception from the crowd was mixed, with some cheering him and others not so much.

If you’ve spent any time on social media over the last couple of days, you know what a mixed bag of emotions there are out there over this surprise endorsement.

My favorites are those who try to rationalize the situation by hyper-analyzing every line of Cruz’s statement, in order to point out how it wasn’t an endorsement. He was simply supporting the candidate.

These are the people with full-page layouts, with every pertinent word from Cruz’s statement broken down to the original Latin roots of the word, combined with subtexts and Venn diagrams to explain Friday’s non-endorsement.

It was an endorsement.

And he still can’t say the GOP nominee is fit or qualified, and he’s right, because he’s not.

    Smith listed several of the things Cruz has said about Trump in the past, including calling the New York businessman “utterly immoral,” “a sniveling coward,” “a pathological liar” and “a serial philanderer.”

    Did he mean those things?

    “I have had many, many disagreements with Donald Trump, some of which you have cataloged,” Cruz said. “And I have not been at all reluctant to articulate exactly why I believe that I should be the nominee instead of him.”

    He later added, “We are in a general election now. I don’t think it is productive for me to criticize the Republican nominee today.”

I’ll give Cruz big props for not pretending that Trump had suddenly become a decent or principled person, because he hasn’t. He’s the same gilded toad that played to the dulled down intellect of the nation’s politically active Idiocracy during the primaries.

Cruz is like so many of us: He feels stuck.

The only difference is, those of us who refuse to bend our principles and support Trump with our votes will (presumably) still be able to vote in the next election. If Cruz wants to remain in politics as a profession, he has to play the game and sometimes back others that he can’t bring himself to call “fit” or “qualified.”

What a horrible, bitter, difficult position he and so many others have been forced into.

http://www.redstate.com/sweetie15/2016/09/25/cruz-didnt-couldnt-say-endorsement-trump/

[libertybele]

Nope.  He cannot have it both ways.  We defended him for months.  We backed him up after he was treated horribly for his Convention speech saying "vote your conscience."  So what does he do?  He stabs us in the back and pulls the binary choice, must vote Trump or you are a liberal garbage on us.  With friends like that who needs enemies.

I'm still trying to find a link or a news source to Cruz calling us liberals if we don't vote for Trump.

[libertybele]

It is over on the Cruz endorsed Trump thread posted by ExFreeper.  Specifically, he said the #NeverTrump people who are mad at him were liberals.  Perhaps he should double check with Steave Deace, Daniel Horowitz and Ben Shapiro.  They are all #NeverTrump.  I guess they are not sufficiently mad so they don't count? 

It is true that some are liberals who supported Cruz only because he wasn't Trump.  Frankly he should not be so quick to cast them off.  But for the most part the people mad at him are conservatives like me.  i don't appreciate the slap when I've spent hours defending him, even specifically defending his non endorsement convention speech.  He is now flipping and saying he never meant it as a non endorsement.  If you go back and see his interviews, that is not what he was saying at the time.  So we are suppose to just flip with him and vote Trump?  Our conscience only matters as long as we are following his orders?

I went back to ExFreepers post which is actually an audio clip ... I listened to the clip around minute 6 ... in which Hewitt talks about the pushback that Cruz is receiving ... in my interpretation Cruz is referencing those in Congress, those in the media, who have always hated him because of his stance on conservatism  ... those are the people he are calling liberals; not his supporters. In fact he specifically names Mike Murphy.

[libertybele]

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6jdzwrCgEI

[Norm Lenhart]

I went back to ExFreepers post which is actually an audio clip ... I listened to the clip around minute 6 ... in which Hewitt talks about the pushback that Cruz is receiving ... in my interpretation Cruz is referencing those in Congress, those in the media, who have always hated him because of his stance on conservatism  ... those are the people he are calling liberals; not his supporters. In fact he specifically names Mike Murphy.

Maybe that is the case. But the days are over when a sellout ex conservative can point fingers about who is a liberal, when that person is standing behind a liberal and promoting one himself.

That is the biggest failing right there. Cruz completely lost all credibility as a spokesman of conservative principle when he abandoned it for whatever reason. Principles are not principles unless you stand on them and clearly he did not. Why is not relavant. He did not. Thats all that matters.

So without principle, he's just another Republican backing a liberal.

[libertybele]

Maybe that is the case. But the days are over when a sellout ex conservative can point fingers about who is a liberal, when that person is standing behind a liberal and promoting one himself.

That is the biggest failing right there. Cruz completely lost all credibility as a spokesman of conservative principle when he abandoned it for whatever reason. Principles are not principles unless you stand on them and clearly he did not. Why is not relavant. He did not. Thats all that matters.

So without principle, he's just another Republican backing a liberal.

The 'principle' is two fold.  Stopping Hillary Clinton from becoming president and hoping to place conservative justices on the Supreme Court to ensure our Bill of Rights.  IMHO Cruz's goal isn't to elect Trump but to accomplish goals by backing him.

[skeeter]

The 'principle' is two fold.  Stopping Hillary Clinton from becoming president and hoping to place conservative justices on the Supreme Court to ensure our Bill of Rights.  IMHO Cruz's goal isn't to elect Trump but to accomplish goals by backing him.

This essay is the best summary of the fix Cruz finds himself in I've seen.

And you are correct - Cruz had a choice between the practical and the emotionally satisfying. He chose practical.

[libertybele]

This essay is the best summary of the fix Cruz finds himself in I've seen.

And you are correct - Cruz had a choice between the practical and the emotionally satisfying. He chose practical.

I also believe he's doing what he feels right now is best for country.  With Hillary this country won't stand a chance.  With Donny there is a slight possibility that we can survive the next four years. 

[Maj. Bill Martin]

He stabs us in the back and pulls the binary choice, must vote Trump or you are a liberal garbage on us.  With friends like that who needs enemies.

Did Cruz actually say that?  Did he say that you shouldn't vote your conscience if it leads you to a different conclusion than his?

What's so weird about this assault on Cruz is that a lot of his defenders were saying that when he said "vote your conscience", he was not saying not to vote for Trump.  So now that his conscience is leading him to vote for Trump he's being accused of going back on a supposed promised (not voting for Trump) that he never even made in the first place.

[libertybele]

Did Cruz actually say that?  Did he say that you shouldn't vote your conscience if it leads you to a different conclusion than his?

What's so weird about this assault on Cruz is that a lot of his defenders were saying that when he said "vote your conscience", he was not saying not to vote for Trump.  So now that his conscience is leading him to vote for Trump he's being accused of going back on a supposed promised (not voting for Trump) that he never even made in the first place.

Cruz is going to be criticized regardless of what stance he takes.  I am a huge supporter of Cruz, though I am disappointed in the outcome, so far, I am not disappointed in him. I have no doubt that one of his main reasons of backing Trump is hoping to preserve the Supreme Court and his second objective is to stop Hillary. I think there is more to this than we know, but I still trust Ted more than 90% of those in Congress.  I am extremely disappointed in the RNC for their rush to push Trump through and not adhering to their own rules and the GOPe (though not surprising) for not backing Cruz when they had the chance; ironically, they in turn have expected Cruz to back Trump.  Now that he's doing so, he's being criticized.