CLEVELAND — Donald Trump Jr. said Thursday they knew Sen. Ted Cruz wasn’t going to endorse his father in the Texas senator’s Wednesday speech at the Republican National Convention, but said it ended up galvanizing people behind the Republican presidential nominee anyway.
“We knew that wasn’t coming,” Mr. Trump said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I think [my father] wants to show that he’s about unity, so he knew that was happening and he was a better man about it.”
“If there was any doubt left going into yesterday, I think him doing that galvanized everyone,” he said.
“If there were a couple detractors left, they got on board, because you know what? Everyone else in that arena and everyone else who’s a conservative in this country — they realize that the number one objective [is] making sure that Hillary Clinton doesn’t end up in … office,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Cruz congratulated the GOP nominee on winning the nomination in his speech Wednesday evening, but as it became clear toward the end of his address he was not going to formally endorse him, the crowd inside the Quicken Loans Arena greeted him with a resounding chorus of boos.
Mr. Cruz had told the crowd to vote their “conscience” and support candidates up and down the ticket who they trust to defend freedom and be faithful to the Constitution.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich tried to mop things up afterward by saying that Mr. Cruz was essentially telling the crowd to vote for the elder Mr. Trump based on the description he outlined.
The candidate himself tweeted afterward that Mr. Cruz violated the pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee, that he saw his speech two hours early but let him speak anyway, and that it was “no big deal!”
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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