Cruz warms to Trump
By Burgess Everett
09/21/16 06:02 PM EDT
Two months after snubbing Donald Trump at the Republican convention, Ted Cruz is now praising the GOP presidential nominee for inserting himself in Congress's eleventh-hour negotiations over a government funding bill.
On Wednesday, Trump urged congressional negotiators to delay a U.S. hand-off of ICANN, a private-sector, non-profit organization which manages internet domain names. And that was enough to prompt Cruz to laud Trump — whom he pointedly declined to back in July when he urged Republicans to "vote your conscience."
"Appreciate @realDonaldTrump’s support of our efforts to keep the internet free," Cruz tweeted on Wednesday afternoon.
"And we appreciate @tedcruz appreciating @realDonaldTrump. Over to you, @jeffroe," responded Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway, referring to Cruz's former campaign manager.
And those warm words came after Roe suggested at a Bloomberg event that Cruz may be rethinking his withheld endorsement.
"I think he’ll have an answer before Election Day." Roe said, according to Texas Tribune reporter Patrick Svitek. "To be honest ... watching Donald run a better campaign lately has been helpful to him."
Cruz has made blocking the ICANN transition his central focus of the fall and has urged Republicans to include a rider blocking the action in a must-pass spending bill this month. GOP leaders have been generally supportive of the effort, and negotiators are increasingly likely to include some delay in the government funding measure, which will fund federal agencies through Dec. 9.
"It's still being worked," said Senate Commerce Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.). "I don't think it probably resolves anything beyond Dec. 9."
On Tuesday the Senate voted to advance legislation that will eventually become the funding bill. Cruz voted no.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/ted-cruz-donald-trump-budget-fight-228493