While CNN is reporting that one angry attendee of the Republican National Convention had to be restrained by security after Sen. Ted Cruz passed on endorsing Donald Trump in his speech Wednesday night, Trump himself tweeted later that it was “no big deal,” and that he had seen Cruz’s speech in advance.
Wow, Ted Cruz got booed off the stage, didn't honor the pledge! I saw his speech two hours early but let him speak anyway. No big deal!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2016
Crazy, isn’t it? It was Trump who caused a ruckus at the first primary debate by not raising his hand to indicate he’d support the party’s eventual nominee, whoever that turned out to be.
The Republican National Committee’s chief strategist and My Little Pony aficionado Sean Spicer told Ryan Lizza after the evening wrapped that the party was hoping for better.
.@seanspicer to me just now on Cruz "We were hoping for better."
— Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) July 21, 2016
LOL, based on what? Trump says he knew exactly what the speech contained. Then claims shock pledge not honored. Huh?
— Alison Berkowitz (@aliberk65) July 21, 2016
So, did Cruz troll Trump or not? Or is the truth somewhere in between? The RNC did send out the text of Cruz’s speech, and while reading it in print doesn’t quite give the same effect as it had in Quicken Loans Arena, Cruz did stick to his prepared remarks.
https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/755966428281384961
Gingrich just confirmed on Hannity that he saw speech before and wrote his opening line because of it.
— JR Johnson (@thatplacejr) July 21, 2016
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That was an awfully quick bit of spin from Gingrich, and maybe even the most effective bit of his speech, in retrospect.
I didn't see any noticeable differences in Cruz's released text and delivery, aside from swipe at NY delegation https://t.co/PQqDuayJOk
— Anthony Zurcher (@awzurcher) July 21, 2016
Cruz mostly stuck to prepared remarks, but he ad-libbed and drew out pregnant pauses at a couple moments where he might have endorsed Trump.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) July 21, 2016
I was surprised by just one mention of Trump, and passive-aggressive subtext, in Cruz remarks as prepared. But was a lot worse as delivered.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) July 21, 2016
Many RNC speeches have coyly avoided Trump endorsement. But you'd barely notice without a transcript. Cruz drew attention to it.
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) July 21, 2016
https://twitter.com/crowdturtle/status/755982470999310336
So, it really is all in the delivery. Cruz was a debate champion, after all.
So I was 100% wrong and every single word of Cruz's speech was known and cleared in advance.
I am amazed.
— The Nats Won The World Series (@EsotericCD) July 21, 2016
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/755972165351112704
The guy who wrote the Art of the Deal negotiated for Cruz to come to his convention and approved the speech that twisted the knife. Amazing.
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) July 21, 2016
Once again, Cruz didn't deviate from the embargoed remarks organizers released before speech — knew it was coming https://t.co/AEblNBKmOZ
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) July 21, 2016
As I was saying, a setup – that Trump is now bragging about! https://t.co/Ei3QmnLKcy
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) July 21, 2016
Team Trump knew in advance. They would rather boo Cruz to humiliate him one last time than take a partial win. Vindictive and stupid.
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) July 21, 2016
You're playing this exactly wrong, @realDonaldTrump. Just like always. Hire a comm team.
— jon gabriel (@exjon) July 21, 2016
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