Today Ted Cruz confirmed what many suspected—that he refused to endorse Donald Trump because of Trump’s personal attacks on his family.
Today Cruz confirmed that his refusal to back Trump was personal, saying he is not a “servile puppy dog” and vowing not to support anyone who wages personal attacks against his family.
Speaking to an incensed Texas delegation, Cruz explained why he broke his pledge to support the party’s official nominee.
“The day that was abdicated was the day this became personal,” Cruz said. “I’m not going to get into criticizing or attacking Donald Trump, but I’ll give you this response: I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father.”
“And that pledge was not a blanket commitment that if you go and slander and attack Heidi, I’m going to nonetheless come like a servile puppy dog and say thank you very much for maligning my wife and my father,” he added.
The mutual personal acrimony began in March, when a Pro-Cruz Super PAC released near-naked photos of Melania. Cruz denied being behind it, but Trump responded on March 23 by tweeting “Lyin’ Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lyin’ Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife!” Of course, Trump had no beans to spill Instead he retaliated with the above tweet featuring Heidi Cruz and Melania Trump.
Cruz responded by taking the high road, tweeting shortly thereafter: “Donald, real men don’t attack women. Your wife is lovely, and Heidi is the love of my life.”
Cruz later addressed the situation during a television interview. “Last night Donald threatened my wife. He went directly after my wife. She is my best friend in the world,” Cruz blasted. “If Donald wants to get in a character fight, he’s better off stickin’ with me. Because Heidi is way out of his league,” he added.
The remark turned out to be a plagiarized from the 1995 Michael Douglas movie “The American President.” “You want a character debate, Bob? You better stick with me, ’cause Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your league,” Douglas says.
Then Trump made controversial comments on abortion. Women all over the country responded negatively to the twin gaffs. It was one of the worst weeks of his campaign. Like the boy who got his hand caught in the cookie jar, Trump regretted that things had gone badly, not the crass act in itself: “If I had to do it again,” he tweeted, “I wouldn’t have sent it”
On May 3, Cruz unloaded on Trump again as Indiana voters went to the polls, accusing him during a news conference of being a “pathological liar,” “utterly amoral,” “a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country’s ever seen” and “a serial philanderer.”
“This man is a pathological liar, he doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies … in a pattern that is straight out of a psychology text book, he accuses everyone of lying,” Cruz said as Indiana voters headed to cast their ballots.
“Whatever lie he’s telling, at that minute he believes it … the man is utterly amoral,” Cruz told reporters. “Donald is a bully … bullies don’t come from strength they come from weakness.”
“He is proud of being a serial philanderer … he describes his own battles with venereal diseases as his own personal Vietnam,” Cruz said, citing a decades-old Trump appearance on “The Howard Stern Show.”
Trump had also attacked Rafael Cruz, the Senator’s father. “And (Ted Cruz’s) father, you know, was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s, you know, being shot. I mean the whole thing is ridiculous,” Trump said in an interview on “Fox and Friends.” “I mean what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald, shortly before the death? Before the shooting? It’s horrible.”
Trump source was the National Enquirer, which is led by friend David Pecker. Some accused Trump of planting the story.
The remark led to swift criticism from many Republicans. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a fierce opponent of Trump, tweeted, “Any doubt left Trump is completely unhinged? His assertion Ted Cruz’s father was associated with Lee Harvey Oswald should remove ALL doubt.”
Remember the famous quote by Henry Clay? “I’d rather be right than President.” Clay never did become President, but he was more historically significant than most of the Presidents of his time.
Time will tell if the same thing happens to Ted Cruz.
