CLEVELAND — The official theme of the penultimate night of the Republican National Convention was supposed to be “Make America First Again.”
And Ted Cruz didn’t disagree.
He just disagreed that putting Donald Trump first was the best way to do it.
In an emotional, precedent-shattering address Wednesday, Trump’s vanquished primary rival followed his own conscience — and pursued his own agenda — by refusing to endorse his party’s newly minted nominee, while implicitly putting himself forward as an alternative party leader should Trump crash and burn in November.
In response, thousands of delegates booed and turned their backs on the Texas senator, choosing instead to face Trump, who had materialized on the other side of the Quicken Loans Arena in silent, seething protest.
“Endorse Trump! Endorse Trump!” they shouted. “Go home, Ted!”
It was perhaps the most clamorous and divisive convention moment since 1976, when Cruz’s hero Ronald Reagan challenged incumbent President Gerald Ford for the GOP nomination.
For weeks, the media was abuzz about whether Cruz would show support for Trump. But after a primary in which the tycoon mocked the senator as “Lyin’ Ted” and linked his father — erroneously — to Lee Harvey Oswald, Cruz couldn’t bring himself to do it.
The most Cruz could muster was a curt congratulations.
“I congratulate Donald Trump on winning the nomination last night,” Cruz said 20 seconds into his speech. He went on to add — in a line that wasn’t part of his prepared remarks — that, “like each of you, I want to see the principles that our party believes in prevail in November.”
Not the nominee. The principles. Cruz didn’t mention trump again