Despite telling delegates and attendees of the 2016 Republican National Convention to “vote your conscience” on Election Day, former presidential candidate Ted Cruz officially endorsed Donald Trump last week. The junior Texas senator’s sudden change of heart came as a big surprise to supporters and detractors alike, as his highly publicized rivalry with the Republican nominee seemingly knew no bounds throughout the primaries. Literally, as Trump did everything to tear Cruz down — from making veiled threats against his wife, to suggesting his father had something to do with President John F. Kennedy’s assassination.
Unsurprisingly, Cruz has spent all subsequent public appearances defending his decision to endorse Trump despite his obvious distaste for the New York real-estate mogul. According to the Washington Post, this was especially the case at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, where Cruz discussed the matter with the paper’s founding editor, Evan Smith:
“They were tearfully begging me to support the nominee,” Cruz said. “They trudged through the snow; they made phone calls. Their view was that they were horrified by a Hillary Clinton presidency. Listen: If people from Washington are smacking me with a stick, I don’t care. It usually means I’m doing the right thing. But when you hear the voices of the grass roots who believe with all their heart — their voices move me.”
Interestingly, the event at which Cruz supposedly saw Republicans and tea party activists “tearfully begging” him to throw his name behind Trump’s nomination was the same one he vehemently refused to become a “servile puppy dog.” At the time, that particular outburst famously enraged Cruz’s waning followers even further than his initial refusal to endorse Trump.
Cruz went on to explain his reasoning: “Between the two choices of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, I believe that Hillary Clinton will do a great deal of damage to this country.” Smith and members of the audience questioned him further, asking whether or not he thought Trump could do just as much damage. But instead of expanding upon his “many, many disagreements with Donald,” Cruz opted to let the endorsement speak for itself.
(Via Washington Post)
