Cruz Missile: Ted torpedos GOP convention amid Trump dynasty takeover

WASHINGTON: Fissures in the Republican ranks widened on Wednesday after Senator Ted Cruz used the convention floor to call for a conscience vote in the presidential election after declining to endorse Donald Trump, the man who defeated him and 15 others in the race of the GOP nomination.

The Cruz missile that torpedoed the Republican National Convention emerged in a stealth mode. The Texas Senator took advantage of the party’s control over the speakers’ line-up to take the mike and upstage the vice-presidential nominee Mike Pence, who was the keynote speaker of the day.

He did not directly attack Trump, but the rancor of defeat at the hands of Trump and the bitterness arising from taunts of "lyin Ted" throughout the primaries was evident as Cruz told delegates and voters to "vote your conscience" in November.

"To those listening, please, don’t stay home in November," Cruz, who came a distant second to Trump in the primaries and who has indicated he will run again in 2020, said. "Stand and speak and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom and to be faithful to the Constitution."

All hell broke loose as Cruz hogged more than 20 minutes on stage, pushing Pence’s speech beyond prime time. Trump supporters broke into chants of "Vote for Trump!" and "Say it!" as it became evident that Cruz would not endorse the candidate, as required by the party’s pledge of allegiance.

Trump, who had reportedly phoned Cruz earlier in the day and request him for an endorsement, himself appeared in the area, looking furious as he joined his sons and daughters, whose prominent role at the convention has generated disquiet about its outsized influence in the Trump campaign.

As Cruz wound up amid a growing chorus of protests, Republican rabble yelled out invectives, calling him a "traitor" while his supporters chanted "2020!" His wife Heidi had to be escorted out of the convention center under protection, and some reports said Cruz himself was turned away from a convention suite of a Trump supporter when he tried to join a party there.

Soon after, Trump tweeted: "Wow. Ted Cruz got booed off the stage, didn’t honor the pledge!" He also told his followers he had seen a copy of Cruz’s speech "two hours early but let him speak anyway. No big deal!"

The GOP speaker's line up is controlled by the Republican National Committee, but the candidate is afforded the courtesy of consultation.

The scuttlebutt in the party was Trump expected Cruz to at least make an implicit endorsement, but the latter declined.

He wasn’t the only one to hold out: Ohio Governor John Kasich, who also lost the nomination race to Trump (coming a distant fourth) has also skipped the convention held on his political turf even as a row erupted over claims by Kasich’s advisors that Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr had invited Kasich to be Trump’s running mate, promising that he would be the most powerful vice-president in history and virtually run the government.

"John Kasich was never asked by me to be V.P. Just arrived in Cleveland -- will be a great two days!" Trump tweeted, evidently rattled the report. "What am I – a meathad?" he asked angrily.

The Cruz missile and the Kasich torpedo effectively upstaged the keynote address of Mike Pence, the Indiana governor who Trump has picked as his running mate.

Pence made a traditional, tedious speech about Trump’s virtues and Christian, conservative values, but it was Trump’s children who labored to put some gloss over their father’s personality amid disquiet in the Republican commentariat over the dynastic takeover.

Talk show host and former lawmaker Joe Scarborough was among those who lashed out at the family control of the campaign, saying it was insulting that Trump thinks he can wing it with his offsprings, and they are simply not experienced enough to run a national campaign.

"I'll say this directly to the Trumps. You've never done this before, and, yes, you won the Republican primary, but to suggest that just because you're close as a family that you all alone can run this without somebody ... is handing the presidency to Hillary Clinton."

Another conservative media icon, Ann Coulter, has unloaded on the Trumps for picking Pence as a running mate, calling him a "loser" and a "combo-platter of disaster."

All this in the run up to the grand finale on Thursday night when Trump will make his acceptance speech.