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Trump Vets Adviser: Clinton "Should Be Put In The Firing Line And Shot For Treason"

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Spencer Platt / Getty Images

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An adviser to Donald Trump on veterans issues said on Tuesday that Hillary Clinton should be put in a firing line and shot for treason.

New Hampshire state representative Al Baldasaro, who is also a Trump delegate from the state and has appeared with Trump at campaign events, made the comments on the Jeff Kuhner Show.

"I'm a veteran that went to Desert Shield, Desert Storm. I'm also a father who sent a son to war, to Iraq, as a Marine Corps helicopter avionics technician. Hillary Clinton to me is the Jane Fonda of the Vietnam," he said. "She is a disgrace for the lies that she told those mothers about their children that got killed over there in Benghazi. She dropped the ball on over 400 emails requesting back up security. Something's wrong there."

"This whole thing disgusts me, Hillary Clinton should be put in the firing line and shot for treason," he added.

Baldasaro has spoken at several Trump events, introducing Trump multiple times, including at an event in late May where he admonished the media for focusing on questions over Trump's donations to veteran's charities.

He later added in the radio interview that Clinton was a "piece of garbage."

A spokesperson for the Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Boston Globe followed up with Baldasaro after BuzzFeed News' report and he said he stood by his comments.

Trump campaign spokesperson Hope Hicks told NH1 News, "We’re incredibly grateful for his support, but we don’t agree with his comments.”



At Gays For Trump Party, The Former Fringe Celebrates Trump's Nomination

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Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed News

CLEVELAND — The 2016 Republican National Convention has been a fraught time for the Republican Party, a painful rift instead of a triumph.

But on Tuesday night, a few minutes away from the Quicken Loans Arena, Donald Trump’s nomination was cause for unadulterated celebration. Here, some of Trump’s most passionate advocates — figures often relegated to the fringe — instead headlined a “Gays for Trump” party.

Dubbed the “WAKE UP!” party by organizers, guests were entreated to speeches from Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders; Breitbart writer and (now-banned) Twitter celebrity Milo Yiannapolous; and anti-Islam activist Pamela Geller. (Geller’s was, she said, her first public speech since her Garland, Texas, appearance last year that was attacked by gunmen.) Notorious conservative writer Charles C. Johnson was in attendance wearing a Make America Great Again hat, as well as white nationalists Richard Spencer and Peter Brimelow. It took place in an anonymous ballroom at Cleveland’s Wolstein Center.

“I’ve worked on LGBT issues with Republican nominees since 2004,” said Chris Barron, one of the co-founders of the gay Republican group GOProud, who organized the event. “This is the most open campaign I have ever dealt with.”

“By the way, the Trump-Pence signs that are up here that are not even in the convention hall yet? The campaign had those on special order for us,” Barron said. “They wanted this event to go on. They were excited for this to go on.” Barron said he was an official surrogate for the Trump campaign.

GOProud was an early Trump adopter; the group was responsible for Trump’s first appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2011. Trump has cast himself as a defender of the LGBT community — one who is relatively agnostic on marriage — and he made a renewed round of overtures after the recent attack on an Orlando gay club. Tuesday's event was meant to be a LGBT-themed event. But the presence of open white nationalists like Spencer and Brimelow, plus the archetypical far-right European politician Wilders, highlighted other themes: populism, nationalism, ethno-centrism. The undercurrents that have made Trump’s candidacy so different from past Republican nominees, so marked Tuesday’s party.

“It’s really so good to be back again in America all week at the convention of what you call the Grand Old Party,” Wilders, who is visiting the convention this week as a guest of the Tennessee Republican Party, told the crowd. Like the other speakers, Wilders spoke behind a lectern sporting a Trump-Pence sign and in front of a wall covered in photographs of half-naked young men wearing Make America Great Again hats taken by “Twinks for Trump” auteur Lucian Wintrich. “I’m not American but don’t blame me if I say I hope that Donald J. Trump will win the election.” Wilders was accompanied by several bodyguards who escorted him out immediately after he finished speaking, and organizers said Wilders was part of the reason security at the venue itself was so tight (attendees were wanded before going in).

Pam Geller

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed News

The undisputed star of the night was Yiannopolous, who has become a beloved figure on the alt-right and who just that night had been kicked off Twitter permanently.

Yiannopolous took the stage sporting sunglasses and body armor. “I’m banned from Twitter!” he announced. He then took off the vest to reveal a tank top that had an image of a rainbow-colored gun and the words “We Shoot Back.”

“I'm not the only one who recognizes that a Republican candidate, that Donald Trump is the most pro-gay candidate in American electoral history,” he said. Yiannopolous then gaggled with the press and stood receiving admirers, of which there were many.

(Two other big names who had been advertised as coming never showed up: Ann Coulter and Roger Stone.)

Taking the scene in was Robert Stacy McCain, a longtime conservative activist and journalist who is in town covering the convention for the American Spectator, he said, and who has also been banned by Twitter. For McCain, this party was emblematic of the new order under Trump: a rejection of 2000s-era Republican moderate-conservative coalition politics.

“The failure of Bushism has made this happen,” McCain said. “You have gay libertarians and white nationalists, frankly, who are on the same side.”

“People who are marginalized on the right during the Bush years have sort of formed an ad hoc coalition,” McCain said.

Brimelow, who was once a mainstream conservative National Review writer before his hardline anti-immigration stances led him into white nationalism, said he believes Trump is “breaking the whole thing apart.”

“The Republican party’s totally corrupt,” Brimelow told BuzzFeed News. “They deserve it.”

Nearby, Richard Spencer was thoroughly enjoying himself. Spencer — another formerly mainstream conservative who developed into a white nationalist and now runs a think tank called the National Policy Institute — said he had a credential for the convention but wouldn’t say how he’d gotten it, only saying he has “friends in high places.” But he said he had continually been running into self-identified members of the alt-right around Cleveland. “The alt right is here,” he said.

“It’s amazing,” Spencer said. “We’ve taken over the right.”

LINK: Inside A White Nationalist Conference Energized By Trump’s Rise

LINK: How 2015 Fueled The Rise Of The Freewheeling, White Nationalist Alt Right Movement

LINK: Twitter Permanently Suspends Conservative Writer Milo Yiannopoulos

Nigel Farage Says Trump's Muslim Policy "Makes Even Me Wince"

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Nigel Farage poses with admirers in Cleveland.

BuzzFeed

UKIP leader Nigel Farage fought to limit immigration in Britain but says Donald Trump's policies go too far even for him.

“I’ve been called over the top once or twice, but I think some of Donald Trump’s comments are pretty out there," he said at an event at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland hosted by the McClatchy Company.

Farage did offer some light praise for Trump, but criticized the Republican nominee's promise to ban Muslim immigrants.

"He’s trying to get some big messages out there, some big wedge issues, trying to reach voters who feel frustrated, perhaps a little bit scared," said Farage.

"I get what he’s doing, but occasionally the style makes even me wince a little bit."

Farage said he has never met Trump and was attending the RNC because he was invited by McClatchy.

He declined to endorse either Trump or Hillary Clinton, saying that politicians should not tell foreign voters how to think.

The UKIP leader said Barack Obama's opposition to Brexit was a case in point.

"I shall always be eternally grateful to Obama because he came to our country, he was rude to us, he told us what we should do, and he lead to a big Brexit bounce of several points," said Farage.

While Farage did not officially endorse Trump, he did say Clinton was arrogant: "I wouldn’t vote for Hillary if you paid me.”

Cruz Holds A Throwback Campaign Event — That Literally Gets Buzzed By Trump's Plane

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Joe Raedle / Getty Images

CLEVELAND — For the staffers and reporters at Ted Cruz’s event in Cleveland on Wednesday, the moment was a strange trip back in time, to back when Cruz was in a hard-fought primary trying to consolidate support as the last non-Trump candidate.

Cruz’s senior campaign staff was all in attendance — including Rick Tyler, his former communications director who was summarily fired in February after sharing an erroneous Facebook post. Cruz’s colorful campaign manager Jeff Roe held court with reporters. And Heidi and Ted Cruz appeared on stage together at an outdoor bar here, the same way they did time and time again during the campaign, with Cruz giving a condensed thank-you speech that hit on many of the same themes that undergirded his message this year.

But there was a forceful reminder that the primary was, in fact, over, in the form of Donald Trump’s plane, which flew into Cleveland behind Cruz just as Cruz was mentioning “the nominee.”

The crowd of Cruz delegates booed loudly right at that moment, and Cruz laughed.

“That was pretty well orchestrated,” Cruz joked. “Jeff, did you email them to fly the plane right when I said that?”

View Video ›

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Cruz made oblique references to his political future and to his speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, which he may or may not use to offer some level of an endorsement of Trump.

“I don’t know what the future holds,” Cruz said. “I don't know what's gonna happen, but what I do know, what remains unshakeable, is my faith in the men and women here.”

“What I do know is that every one of us has an obligation to follow our conscience to speak the truth, and truth is unchanging,” Cruz said. That word — conscience — was a meaningful choice of words, after the extended debate over the last few weeks about whether delegates could vote their conscience for someone other than Trump.

“There's a lot of talk about unity,” Cruz said. “I want to see unity and the way to see unity is for us to unite behind shared principles, us to unite in defense of liberty, and for us to empower the grassroots.”

Speaking to reporters before Cruz’s event, Roe cautioned against comparing Cruz’s speech tonight to Ronald Reagan’s 1976 convention speech in which Reagan, the runner-up to Gerald Ford, essentially endorsed Ford.

“I think it's a different time,” he said, saying people can be “led astray by looking for times in history that really are more incongruent than they are alike.”

Roe said Trump and Cruz had spoken on Tuesday.

Roe said of Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort "we chat all the time," adding Manafort was calling him to talk about some of the delegate maneuvering that took place at the convention in the past few days.

Roe called Cruz's speech a "huge opportunity for him and very nice gesture from the Trump campaign," but declined to give specifics on what will be in the speech. He was unclear on whether it mentions Trump by name, saying, "That's a good question. I don't know if the last draft has that or not. but there's certainly a, uh — I think they'll be pleased with the speech."

Roe also praised Trump for picking Mike Pence as his running mate, calling Pence a "stud" and a "tremendous pick."

Black Republican Delegates Are Big Fans Of Omarosa

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Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

CLEVELAND — Black Republican delegates overwhelmingly support the Trump campaign putting Omarosa Manigault — the former Apprentice contestant — in charge of black outreach, despite lingering questions over her party identification and influence with black political and civil rights leaders.

There hasn’t been a formal campaign announcement regarding Manigault’s hiring; Manigault herself made the announcement on an appearance on MSNBC in which she defended the campaign’s ability to draw in black voters.

But black delegates say Manigault is the right operative for the job because of her close relationship to Trump, taking priority over concerns she worked in the Clinton administration and isn’t seen as having conventional political connections in black America.

“We get hung up on how long someone’s been a Democrat,” Michael Barnett, the Palm Beach County Republican Party Chair said in an interview with BuzzFeed News. “People see the light on their deathbed or early in life. But if you really believe in our mission and candidate then everybody’s welcome.”

Barnett, who met Manigault earlier this month at the National Diversity Coalition for Trump’s meeting at the RNC in Washington, said she “seemed like a real sweetheart” and that she good idea how to bring minorities into the campaign and supporting Trump.

“The reality is we’re not going to move forward with the same party,” he said. “Trump is building a real coalition and it’s going to take independents and Democrats to make America safer, make us more financially, economically secure. It’s a message that we’re gravitating to and promoting.”

Some delegates that met Manigault described here as an affable, charismatic, and task-oriented. But nearly every black Republican supporting the campaign said the same thing: Her most important attribute is her close personal relationship with the candidate.

“She is a very strong and sound businesswoman,” Sean Jackson, the chair of the Black Republican Caucus of Florida said. “She’s politically savvy and she knows the intricacies and the ins and outs of Washington, D.C., and she’s very good when it comes to strategizing. But most important is her relationship with Mr. Trump of over 13 years. She knows the heart and character of this man and that makes it easy to vouch for him to black voters.”

Kory Boone, a delegate from Maryland who is chair of its young Republicans, said he was optimistic the hire meant outreach was moving forward. But Boone said he was unsure how effective Manigault would be in the position because establishment candidates for it usually fit a certain mold — like being connected in the civil rights community.

“I’m not sure who her friends are, what circles she’s involved with, or if she’s a part of any black orgs, so I’m not sure how effective she’ll be effective she’ll be recruiting African Americans,” Boone said. “If she was a member of NAACP or Urban League, I would say she has some influence. Not to say that’s the only way to reach black people but it helps.”

Manigault is perhaps best-known for her villainous turn on NBC’s The Apprentice.

“What people realize when they first meet Omarosa is that she’s sincere and down-to-earth,” Jackson said. “It is very easy for anybody to meet Omarosa and instantly fall in love with her.”

Parson Hicks, a delegate from Massachusetts said she was happy that Trump finally put someone in the position and that she was excited to see it was an area Trump was beginning to focus on — even if Manigault lacks the campaign experience.

“What I know is that Donald Trump surrounds himself with people that he trusts,” Hicks said. “I do think that for someone in that position it’s helpful to have some of that experience, but I imagine she’ll people around to help her. Like any position, you have the best people around you to help.”

“But what we’ve seen from Trump is that he values people who he’s worked with. I think he knows there aren’t too many people in the establishment who care for him.”

Here's A Handy Guide To What Ted Cruz Has Said About Donald Trump

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Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is scheduled to speak at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday evening, two months after he was vanquished in the Indiana primary and dropped out of the race.

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

What's still unclear is whether he will use his primetime address to formally endorse Donald Trump, his onetime friendly competitor turned bitter rival.

A possible endorsement is complicated for Cruz given his past words about the Republican nominee.

Here's a helpful look back at all Cruz's key statements on Trump:

Wilfredo Lee / AP

“I like Donald Trump. He’s bold, he’s brash" — July 3, 2015

youtube.com

In an interview with NBC weeks after Donald Trump announced his candidacy, Cruz praised the wealthy real estate developer.

"I get that it seems the favorite sport of the Washington media is to encourage some
Republicans to attack other Republicans. I ain’t going to do it. I’m not
interested in Republican-on-Republican violence," he said.

"Donald Trump is terrific" — Dec. 11, 2015.

As Cruz rose in the polls last year, and stories focussed on what Trump would make of his new challenger, the Texas senator criticized the media and Republican "establishment" for pushing a "cage match" narrative.

"Sorry to disappoint — @realDonaldTrump is terrific. #DealWithIt," he tweeted.

"Donald, you're a sniveling coward" — March 25, 2015

Scott Olson / Getty Images

Things didn't stay friendly for long.

After Trump attacked Ted Cruz's wife's appearance, the senator labelled him a "sniveling coward" and a "loud, New York bully."

"Donald, you're a sniveling coward and leave Heidi the hell alone," Cruz said.

"Donald does seem to have an issue with women. Donald doesn't like strong women," he said. "Real men don't try to bully women. That's not an action of strength. That's an action of weakness. It's an action of fear. It's an action of a small and petty man who is intimidated by strong women."

Cruz later said he didn't lash out against Trump earlier for fear of becoming political "roadkill."

"This man is a pathological liar, he doesn't know
the difference between truth and lies" — May 3, 2016

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

The final straw for Cruz came just hours before the Indiana voters went to the polls, when Donald Trump attacked Cruz's father, implying he was somehow involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

That led Cruz to deliver a firestorm of a press conference in which he repeatedly assailed Trump as mentally unstable and unfit to lead.

"This man is a pathological liar," Cruz said. "He doesn't know the difference between truth and lies ... in a pattern that is straight out of a psychology text book, he accuses everyone of lying."

"Donald Trump is a serial philanderer and he boasts about it" — May 3, 2016

Spencer Platt / Getty Images

“Listen, Donald Trump is a serial philanderer and he boasts about it,” Cruz said at the same press conference.

“I want everyone to think about your teenage kids. The president of the United States talks about how great it is to commit adultery. How proud he is. Describes his battles with venereal disease as his own personal Vietnam.”

"Whatever lie he's telling, at that minute he believes it ... the man is utterly amoral" — May 3, 2016

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

Yep, Cruz also said this at the same Indiana press conference....

Ok... one more:

"You are stuck between Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton. Either one of which is a horrific choice for this country" — May 3, 2016

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

So, the question remains, what will Cruz say about Trump, if anything, on Wednesday night?

After all this, can they kiss and make up?

Aaron Bernstein / Reuters

Yes, Meredith McIver's A Real Person And We Can All Calm Down Now

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The Trump staffer who took the blame for the plagiarism in Melania Trump’s RNC speech is a real human woman.

So, as you may know, after Melania Trump delivered her speech at the Republican National Convention, it became clear that parts of it bore a striking similarity to a 2008 Michelle Obama speech.

So, as you may know, after Melania Trump delivered her speech at the Republican National Convention, it became clear that parts of it bore a striking similarity to a 2008 Michelle Obama speech.

Alex Wong / Getty Images

On Wednesday, the Trump campaign released a statement from an “in-house staff writer from the Trump organization" named Meredith McIver, who took credit for the plagiarism.

On Wednesday, the Trump campaign released a statement from an “in-house staff writer from the Trump organization" named Meredith McIver, who took credit for the plagiarism.

Via donaldjtrump.com

A quick Google search reveals that McIver co-wrote four books with Donald Trump.

A quick Google search reveals that McIver co-wrote four books with Donald Trump.

Amazon / Via amazon.com

Here are her acknowledgements from "Trump: How to Get Rich," which was published in 2004.

Here are her acknowledgements from "Trump: How to Get Rich," which was published in 2004.


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RNC Erupts As Ted Cruz Refuses To Endorse Trump In Convention Speech

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Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

CLEVELAND — Ted Cruz did not endorse Donald Trump in his much-anticipated speech to the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, instead urging Republicans to vote their conscience — to anguished reactions from Trump supporters in the room.

Cruz's speech stole the show on what was intended to be a big night for the vice presidential nominee, Mike Pence — and it led to waves of fallout as the night went on, with Cruz being accosted by a state party chair and turned away from a powerful donor's box in the arena.

"And to those listening, please, don’t stay home in November," the prepared text of Cruz's speech read. "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."

Cruz only mentioned Trump by name once in his speech, saying at the beginning, "I congratulate Donald Trump on winning the nomination last night."

On Wednesday, Cruz's campaign manager, Jeff Roe, declined to tell reporters whether Cruz was going to endorse Trump, instead saying Trump was likely to be "pleased." (On Wednesday night Trump entered the arena during the last minutes of Cruz's speech.) Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort told the AP Cruz would "suggest" that he was endorsing Trump.

But in fact Cruz made his decision clear to Trump two days ago, according to senior Cruz adviser Jason Johnson.

"He told Trump directly, two days ago, no endorsement," Johnson told BuzzFeed News. Johnson said the two had a phone call while Cruz was in Washington, DC. "Trump called Cruz. They spoke on phone." Asked how Trump took the news, Johnson said, "Not going there." And Cruz stuck to his prepared text, which was released by the RNC under embargo well ahead of his speech. Former Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler told BuzzFeed News that the Trump campaign had approved the text of the speech.

(Trump tweeted later in the night that he had seen the speech two hours beforehand: "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!")

Cruz did encourage Republicans to go out and vote in November, but his words fell far short of a real endorsement of Trump, and he specifically told his audience to vote their conscience and emphasized voting for down-ballot candidates. And the response from the crowd on Wednesday night was clear. Cruz's wife, Heidi, left the arena floor during the speech amid the reaction.

As Cruz reached the section of his speech near the end that made it clear he was not endorsing Trump, the crowd erupted into chants and boos. Some delegates chanted at Cruz, "Endorse Trump." He joked that the New York delegation was enthusiastic, but continued on as the yelling and booing kept up.

And afterward, there was more drama. According to someone who witnessed the scene, Washington State Republican Party Chair Susan Hutchison went "bananas" on Cruz outside the elevators near the bottom level suites in the arena after Cruz's speech, calling him a traitor. According to the source, "security kind of stepped in. Cruz folks dragged him and Heidi into an elevator and security kind of pushed her the other way. Wasn't like anyone got arrested, it was just really dramatic."

Hutchison confirmed the incident to BuzzFeed News, saying she called Cruz a "traitor to the party."

"I just told him I thought his speech was inexcusable, and I was so disappointed in him," Hutchison said. Hutchison said she didn't recall Cruz's response. "I was angry, everybody was angry. You heard everybody booing him. We were astounded at what he did." Hutchison said she did not think security got involved.

Also after the speech, Cruz was turned away from megadonor Sheldon Adelson's suite in the arena, according to a source with knowledge of the situation. Adelson announced earlier this year he would back Trump, and his adviser Andy Abboud tweeted a photo of the Adelsons with Trump on Wednesday at the convention. Abboud did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Asked about the incident, Johnson described it as "pretty boring" and said, "I don't know if it was his suite or not. We walked to the suite and were told it was full. Looked pretty full to me but who knows."

After dropping out of the race in May, Cruz did not endorse Trump, and for a long time emphasized the conservative principles that he wanted to see the nominee embody. Cruz's endorsement would be a significant one for Trump, who has failed to unify the party after becoming the presumptive nominee in May following a bitter primary battle. Earlier on Wednesday, Cruz spoke to his delegates in Cleveland, telling them something similar. “There’s a lot of talk about unity,” Cruz said. “I want to see unity and the way to see unity is for us to unite behind shared principles, us to unite in defense of liberty, and for us to empower the grassroots.”

Following his event, an RNC official told Yahoo News that Cruz was likely to run for president again in 2020 — even if Trump is president.

Even up until the hours before Cruz's speech, Republicans were urging him to back Trump: RNC spokesman Sean Spicer told him to "do the right thing," and talk radio host Laura Ingraham sent a shot across the bow to Cruz and other holdouts in her speech to the convention, saying, "You must honor your pledge to support Donald Trump. Now."


Podcast: Where Are All The Protesters?

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Listen to the full episode here, and subscribe to No One Knows Anything on iTunes to follow all of our convention coverage.

Cleveland is full of law enforcement officers for the Republican National Convention this week. But protesters? Not so much. This episode, Evan talks with BuzzFeed News reporter Darren Sands about why there are so few people protesting the convention, and about what it is like for the people who came.

Ted Cruz Clouds Trump VP Mike Pence's Big Convention Speech

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Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images

CLEVELAND — After a rocky rollout announcement, Mike Pence didn't quite get his moment in the spotlight as the Republican's vice presidential nominee during his convention speech.

Although Pence received loud applause throughout his speech, the narrative coming out of the third evening of the convention will focus on someone else. The Indiana governor was largely overshadowed by an uproar on the convention floor at the end of a speech by Sen. Ted Cruz, who declined to endorse Donald Trump, and instead said "to those listening, please, don’t stay home in November. 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."

Cruz was loudly booed off the stage, as Trump walked into the arena. The presidential nominee walked out a few minutes later — immediately after his son Eric Trump's speech, and didn't return to his seat in the Trump family box to watch his running mate take the stage.

Pence received loud cheers as he accepted the nomination for vice president. He spoke about his childhood in Indiana, introduced the country to members of his family and called Trump "a fighter, and a winner" with a colorful personality.

"I guess he was just looking for some balance on the ticket," he joked.

Pence repeatedly praised Trump, stressing how he had turned his "long-shot campaign into a movement."

"When Donald Trump does his talking, he doesn't tiptoe around the thousand new rules of political correctness. He's his own man."

Pence repeatedly attacked Hillary Clinton and went through the Republican Party's policy agenda, listing the economy, school choice, rebuilding the military, supporting Israel, reducing regulations on coal miners and vacancies on the Supreme Court.

"The presidency of Barack Obama ends exactly six-months from today," he said.

Pence's position as Trump's running mate seems intended to unify conservatives in the party behind its nominee. Having previously served in the House, he is well-respected in Washington, D.C. and is popular among social conservatives as well as major donors.

"This team is ready," he said. "This party is ready, and when we elect Donald Trump the 45th president of the United States, together we will make america great again."

Pence dropped out of a tough re-election race to join the GOP ticket. His first official joint appearance with Trump was something of a disaster: The governor did not appear onstage well into a long speech from Trump about various topics.

He is known for his conservative views — and the kind of Republican orthodoxy that Trump has flouted during his campaign. Pence supported the Iraq War, agreed with Hillary Clinton about the need to invade Libya, and has long been an ardent defender and promoter of free trade.

Pence is perhaps best known as a social conservative; Pence strongly opposes abortion, and signed into law a bill than some argued would authorize discrimination against gays and lesbians by private businesses (Pence later backtracked on the law).

The vice presidential nominee was introduced by Speaker Paul Ryan, who worked with him in the House, as "man of solid character" who comes "from the heart of the conservative movement and from the heart of America."

"This is a man who sees public service as a calling and not a career," Ryan said.

Here's What You Need To Know On The Final Day Of The Republican Convention

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Reporting from Cleveland: Bim Adewunmi, Rosie Gray, Tarini Parti, Evan McMorris-Santoro, Darren Sands, Adrian Carrasquillo, McKay Coppins, Matt Stopera, Paul McLeod, Jim Dalrymple, John Stanton, and Mike Hayes.

Trump To Discuss Trade, Borders, And Law And Order During Acceptance Speech

Trump To Discuss Trade, Borders, And Law And Order During Acceptance Speech

Carolyn Kaster / AP Photo


View Entire List ›

Mike Pence In 2002: "Condoms Are A Very, Very Poor Protection" Against STDs

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Jim Bourg / Reuters

In 2002, Donald Trump's running mate Mike Pence said condoms are a poor defense against sexually transmitted infections and diseases.

Pence's comments came in response to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell saying in an MTV forum that young people should protect themselves through safe sex with condoms.

"I think it's important for young people, especially, to protect themselves from the possibility of acquiring any sexually transmitted disease, but especially to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS, which is a plague that is upon the face of the earth," Powell said.

In an interview with CNN, Pence called Powell's comments a "sad day" and said he advocated for abstinence education. Pence said Powell's call for condom use could mislead millions of young people and put their lives at risk.

"Well, Wolf, I think it was — given the enormous stature that Colin Powell rightly has, not only in America but in the world community — it was a sad day. I don't think any administration has had a worse day since boxers and briefs on MTV," Pence said on CNN to Wolf Blitzer. "And the truth is that Colin Powell had an opportunity here to reaffirm this president's commitment to abstinence as the best choice for our young people, and he chose not to do that in the first instance, but — and so I think it's very sad."

"The other part is that, frankly, condoms are a very, very poor protection against sexually transmitted diseases, and in that sense, Wolf, this was — the secretary of state may be inadvertently misleading millions of young people and endangering lives," continued Pence.

Pence said the solution was "too modern" for him.

"The problem is it was too modern of an answer, Wolf," he said. "It was — it truly was a modern, liberal answer to a problem that parents like me are facing all over America, and frankly, all over the world."

The CDC says condoms can effectively protect from many of the most serious sexually transmitted diseases when applied correctly.

Cruz Campaign Manager: Christie "Turned Over His Political Testicles Long Ago"

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Jeff Roe responded to the New Jersey governor’s criticism of Cruz’s convention speech.

Timothy A. Clary / AFP / Getty Images

Ted Cruz's campaign manager responded on Thursday to Chris Christie's criticism of Cruz's convention speech, saying that the New Jersey governor had "turned over his political testicles long ago."

After Cruz declined to endorse Republican nominee Donald Trump in his speech on Wednesday, which was met with boos, Christie called Cruz's speech "selfish."

“That guy turned over his political testicles long ago," Jeff Roe said on the Chris Stigall Show on Philadelphia radio. "So I don’t take what he has to say with any meaning. You know, he embarrassed himself pretty quickly in this.”

In the interview, Roe said that the booing began after an "active whip operation got active."

“Mr. Trump made a call two days ago to Ted and wished him luck at the convention and on his speech, asking him for an endorsement and Ted directly declined," Roe said. "And Mr. Trump heard that. And then we submitted the speech at 6:31 and there was some back and forth, they clearly would’ve liked us to go further and there was discussions had as recently as walking on the stage and we delivered the speech and 95% of the way through the speech the active whip operation got active and started demanding to endorse and booing and it obviously got sideways at the end.”

Asked if he meant that the Trump campaign was spurring delegates to boo, Roe replied, "“I don’t know. There were certainly people being ginned up to boo. But this isn’t a whining moment at all. This isn’t a whining moment at all. It was their convention. Do I think they laid some perfectly executed trap? I think, you know, because the standing ovation at the beginning was so long. We had a 12 minute slot. You know, I think the speech went 21 minutes, a full 6 of that was applause , both unknown that there would be that much standing ovation at the beginning for that long and then of course the end was not anticipated.”

Later in the interview, Roe further defended Cruz's decision not to endorse his party's nominee, including from Christie's argument that Cruz pledged to do so.

“Let’s just go through history here and time. Ted didn’t sign a pledge," Roe said. "He didn’t sign a pledge to support a nominee by convention. You know, this speech went further than Ronald Reagan went on Gerald Ford. It went further than Kennedy did for Carter."

"Look, there’s a couple outs here," he continued. "The outs are that Donald Trump wins. I think he can. I actually think he should, as far as the political dynamics of this go, how bad Hillary Clinton is. I don’t know if he will. I don’t know if the campaign’s coming together in a way to pull that effort off but he should. He’ll either win and be a great president or lose.”

Roe said that Cruz's refusal to endorse Trump was about upholding his principles not positioning himself for a future presidential.

“Ted Cruz is running for reelection in 2018," Roe said. "If this was a 2020 power move by Ted Cruz, this would be the easiest speech to give, is to endorse. So this is, it shouldn’t be lost on any of your listeners that this is not in defiance. We’re not gonna speak ill of the nominee. That’s not what this is about. We’re not gonna rub anybody’s noses in it. He didn’t do press all week leading up to this. We didn’t participate in our delegates’ fight to unbind and free the delegates. This is a guy that has a core set of principles and he’s not willing to waver those in the face of intense pressure.”

Trump Campaign Turns Toxic For Kasich Allies In Crucial Ohio

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Aaron Josefczyk / Reuters

CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Trump campaign's sharp attacks against Gov. John Kasich this week may have imperiled a crucial behind-the-scenes effort to build out the Republican nominee's meager operation in the battleground state.

Despite months of public tension between the Trump and Kasich camps, the governor's loyalists in Ohio had been making plans for the state party to unify and coordinate with the Trump campaign, according to two sources with knowledge of the effort. One of the governor's key strategists had been tapped to coordinate get-out-the-vote efforts with Trump, and other Kasich allies were expected to follow suit.

But on Monday, Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort took the unexpected, and unprecedented, step of blasting Kasich to reporters in his own home state, calling him "petulant" and "embarrassing" for his refusal to endorse Trump.

Since then, "all the top political talent in the state has been called to the sidelines," said one Republican close to Kasich.

Ohio Republican Party chairman Matt Borges confirmed to BuzzFeed News that top Kasich aide Tim Biggam, who had been slated to work with the Trump campaign, no longer wants the job. He also said veteran Ohio strategist John Roscoe was now waiting to see "how the dust settles" before deciding whether to sign on to help Trump.

"Paul Manafort got the week off to a bad start. He made a mistake, and mistakes have consequences," said Borges. "If there's a campaign running around calling [Kasich] an embarrassment...one of those consequences might be that some of the people who wanted to participate in the campaign don't want to anymore."

Borges stressed that it wasn't too late for the Trump campaign to make amends with the Kasich loyalists who populate the state party apparatus, and added, "Nobody intends to make personality issues bigger than the task at hand of making sure Hillary Clinton is not the person to name Supreme Court justices."

Some Kasich backers, meanwhile, disputed the characterization that he had been "helping" Trump behind the scenes. More accurately, they said, his Republican allies were offering to coordinate with Trump out of concern for down-ballot races.

But everyone in Kasich's orbit agreed that Team Trump's escalation of the feud this week would badly damage any chances of a detente — and could prove politically costly to the nominee.

"The core of Trump's strategy is to increase Republican turnout to overcome his demographic disadvantages. Attacking the sitting governor of Ohio who has an 80% favorability rating amongst republicans is as smart as plagiarizing an Obama speech at the RNC convention," said Matt David, a former strategist for the nonprofit backing Kasich's presidential bid.

Until the dynamic changes and Kasich gives his blessing, it may be difficult for Trump to hire top-flight GOP operatives in the state. According to three sources who work in Ohio Republican politics, some are swearing off working for Trump out of loyalty to Kasich; others are simply looking out for future business in the state. One speculated that the campaign's deprivation of political talent in Ohio could cost Trump five percentage points in the state come November.

As in other states, Trump has reportedly chosen to outsource much of the campaign mechanics in Ohio to the RNC and state party.

Peter King On Ted Cruz: "He's Always Been A Liar And A Fraud"

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Jeff Swensen / Getty Images

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Republican Rep. Peter King from New York relished the opportunity to criticize Texas Sen. Ted Cruz for not endorsing Donald Trump during his primetime speech to the Republican convention on Wednesday.

"I thought as bad a person as he is, Ted Cruz would have had the decency if he was given primetime opportunity to speak at the convention – Donald Trump controlled that and he gave him the opportunity to speak – that Ted Cruz would have had the decency to honor the pledge he made and that was to nominate the candidate of the party, the nominee," King said on Long Island radio's L.I. in the A.M. on Thursday.

"To me that showed Ted Cruz for what he is," continued King. "He's always been a liar and a fraud and self-centered and that certainly is what he showed last night."

"If Ted Cruz didn't want to endorse him, then stay away," added King, citing other Republicans endorsing Trump at the convention.

King said Cruz "spit in his face" in regards to Trump and said he deserved to be booed.


Behind The Scenes With Frustrated Latino Republicans At Trump's Convention

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Courtesy USHCC

CLEVELAND — As Kansas and its 40 delegates took their turn in the roll call on the floor of the Republican convention at Quicken Loans Arena, John Kasich was settling into a chair minutes away, just across the Cuyahoga River.

The Ohio governor, who hasn’t stepped foot in the convention brought with much excitement to his home state, was getting ready to speak to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce president about jobs in Ohio, Hispanic businesses, and the convention.

Later, just as the New York delegation put Donald Trump over the top and officially made him the Republican nominee for president, Kasich did what many others have done over the first three days of the convention — talk about Trump, without mentioning his name.

"When you're anti-trade, anti-immigration, what good comes of that?" Kasich said.

At Hispanic events across Cleveland, conservatives lamented the direction Trump was taking the party, highlighting best practices from Republicans they desperately wish were still in vogue. Every convention has events like like this — devoted to Latino voters or young voters. This year, they're still doing the Latino events. But with Trump as the nominee, the frustration is evident.

At a Latino Leaders Network luncheon on Monday, Sen. Orrin Hatch, who founded the U.S. Senate Republican Conference Task Force on Hispanic Affairs nearly 30 years ago, said that his party has a lot to offer Latinos but the country must "reform the nation's broken immigration laws." He described them, not unkindly, as people who are kept in poverty or don't have a sensible way of becoming part of society before admonishing Trumpian appeals to nativism.

"I will never cast aspersions on someone because of where they came from," Hatch said. "Despite what you see on TV, the vast majority of Republicans feel the same way."

After the event, Jose Feliciano, the former chief prosecutor of Cleveland, recalled when he joined Ronald Reagan's White House as a fellow, but now identifies as an independent voter because he's disillusioned with both parties.

He was happy his city was being given the chance to shine, but angry over details of the platform being celebrated.

"The policies being discussed here, a number of them are antithetical to who I am as a person," he said. "On immigration, the view that many Republicans have taken is absolutely outrageous and I find it personally offensive."

Feliciano who works with many Hispanic groups in the city said he doesn't know one Latino supporting Trump.

Even as Trump prepared to seize the nomination for good, Republican leaders and elected officials like House Majority Leader Paul Ryan and Sen. Jeff Flake have in recent weeks wrestled with the idea of where the party goes next and spoken of a reckoning after the election.

At a National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) briefing on the Latino vote, officials carefully said Trump hadn't run "an ideal race," then took turns heaping praise on those who have done a good job speaking to Hispanics.

In Republican Latino circles, that often begins and ends with George W. Bush, including his now near-mythic 2000 convention, which had a Hispanic-themed welcoming event and performances in Spanish from beloved artists like Vicente Fernandez, but also surely seems better when compared to the current gathering in the age of Trump.

They hailed as conquering hero Cory Gardner, who they say won 45% of the Latino vote by embracing Latinos. There, too, they had advice for Trump.

"Right now, the left has defined Donald Trump," said LIBRE Initiative executive director Daniel Garza. "I haven't seen him on Telemundo, Univision or CNN en Español."

Adrian Carrasquillo / BuzzFeed News

It's not too late for Trump with Latinos, Garza argued, but he must run an aggressive, all-out effort to reach them. Ruth Guerra, the former RNC Hispanic media director who left after the primary because of discomfort working to elect Trump, said it's not too late because Hillary Clinton is so disliked and distrusted.

But while the officials, including former Puerto Rico Governor Luis Fortuño, delivered impassioned arguments for why it's better for the Latino community to be fought for by both parties, Trump was always lingering nearby.

"If your narrative includes me, I'm going to be included in your policy," Garza said.

The opposite is also true, of course. Sitting in the audience, Carlos Sada, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said the relationship between the two countries is crucial "yet we continue being bashed every day."

"As a Republican, I'm embarrassed by some of the positions taken by Trump. Most Republicans don't feel the same way," Fortuño responded.

Later, at an event by the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda (NHLA), a nonpartisan coalition of 40 Latino groups that unveiled policies it describes as priorities for the Hispanic community, leaders said they were offended by Trump's anti-immigrant message. Hector Sanchez, NHLA chair, argued that bullying of Hispanic children and racism against Latinos is on the rise.

"What you're seeing is one vision of the party," he cautioned, adding that there is "an effort by the Republican Party to find their way forward."

Inside the convention arena, the Trump vision was blossoming, said Dr. Elena Rios, the executive director of the National Hispanic Medical Association. She said Latinos in medicine feel that Trump's rhetoric calls back to a darker time in American history.

"People say this is 2016 and we are going back to the 1950s," she told BuzzFeed News. "Our parents talked to us about when Mexicans couldn't eat in certain places, the hospitals wee segregated until 1955, and Mexicans and blacks had to be in certain morgues."

To be sure, there were moments when the convention at Quickens Loans Arena blended nicely with the outside Latino-focused events. Ben Carson spoke to the Latino Leaders luncheon and Chris Christie, a day after his fiery convention speech, emerged as an unlikely but effective surrogate to Latinos from the Trump campaign, talking about Latino education and school choice, an issue the community cares about.

But... there were also the signs of a party trying to convince itself that things are fine. The Latino Coalition, a conservative business group, unveiled a unique poll of 200 Republican Hispanics and independents. That's when a perhaps overzealous RNC co-chair Sharon Day said the poll showed that immigration is "way down" as a priority for Latinos, but Democrats force feed the issue to Hispanics. In actuality, immigration was third-most important in the handout given to the audience, and the second-highest priority on the Latino Coalition app it asked attendees to download.

"It's definitely a pet peeve of mine when people say immigration doesn’t rank high for Latinos," said Mario Lopez, president of the Hispanic Leadership Fund, who attended all of the Latino events in Cleveland. "Sometimes people want to cite the lower-ranking of immigration to continue making ridiculous comments to say it's OK to bash the community."

Artemio Muniz, a Republican from Texas opposed to Trump, said there is a battle over what being a Republican stands for.

"I do see competing brands," he said. "Paul Ryan’s brand of conservatism, inspired by Jack Kemp, vs. Trump’s brand, but we're having to fight Hillary while trying to figure out which brand to push out to the public."

Over drinks, while convention attendees mingled before Kasich spoke to the U.S. Hispanic Chamber, a Latino Republican staffer could be heard reflexively calling Trump "a son of a bitch," at the mention of his name. Despite syrupy praise of Kasich from USHCC president Javier Palomarez throughout the entire interview, the organization endorsed Hillary Clinton the day after, a stinging rebuke of Trump and his policies from a major Latino business group in the midst of his party's convention.

"There damn well better be a reckoning," Lopez of the Hispanic Leadership Fund said, arguing that has been the narrative for the last three cycles, 12 years now.

"One way or another Republicans are going to end up understanding it. The question is whether they’ll understand the ins and outs of the issue in time to not be locked out of the White House for 40 to 50 years."

Ted Cruz Faces Angry Texan Delegates After Snubbing Trump

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Robyn Beck / AFP / Getty Images

CLEVELAND — A defiant Ted Cruz defended and expanded on his refusal to endorse Donald Trump in a contentious appearance before the Texas delegation to the convention on Thursday, saying his pledge to support Trump was “abrogated” after Trump started attacking his family.

Cruz entered the room to some applause and hat-waving, but trouble was apparent right away: One delegate stood up holding a sign that said “Clinton/Cruz 2020.” And it only got more combative from there. Cruz resisted repeated appeals from many of the delegates — his constituents — demanding that he back Trump.

“I work for you and you have every right and duty to hold me accountable,” Cruz said. “That's why I’m here this morning. It would have been the easiest thing in the world to turn tail and run but that ain't gonna happen.”

When one questioner pointed out that Cruz, like the other Republican primary contestants, had pledged to support the nominee, Cruz went further than he has before when asked about the topic.

“That pledge was abrogated,” Cruz said. “The day that was abrogated was the day this became personal.” Cruz was referring to Trump’s attacks on his family, particularly his attack on his wife Heidi’s appearance and his suggestion that Cruz’s father had something to do with the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

"This is not a game. This is not politics. Right and wrong matters,” Cruz said. “Neither he nor his campaign has taken back a word of what he said about my family.”

Cruz said he was not going to just automatically endorse Trump like a “servile puppy dog” despite the attacks.

Cruz also addressed the negative reaction to his speech on Wednesday, saying it was “dismaying” and “troubling” that “some of Donald’s biggest partisans right in the front, when they heard that people who should vote for someone they can trust to defend our freedom and defend our conscience, defend the Constitution, immediately they began booing.”

In his speech, Cruz encouraged Republicans to vote for candidates up and down the ticket and to vote their conscience — a meaningful word choice in the context of the battle over whether delegates could vote their conscience instead of voting for Trump that was one of the biggest stories leading up to the convention.

Cruz said he was not going to vote for Hillary Clinton. But he did not commit to voting for Trump when asked directly if he would.

“The way to win, as I tried with all my might to lay out last night, is not to just scream and yell and attack as a traitor anyone who would dare question our candidate,” Cruz said. (He himself was confronted by the Washington state Republican Party chair last night and called a traitor.)

Cruz took several questions from the delegation, many of them hostile, and was onstage for about 30 minutes total. “Can anyone imagine our party's nominee standing before you and answering questions like this?" he said at one point.

Immediately following his exit, delegates spilled out into the hallway outside the Marriott ballroom and started yelling at each other.

“He will never be president. I will campaign against him,” said Shawn McAnelly, the man who had held up the Clinton-Cruz 2020 sign. “Because all he was doing is helping Hillary Clinton. And he’s a liar.”

“This is like it’s an engagement and the guy you’re going to marry goes out and does these things that are an abomination to the vows that you’re going to take, then you have a right to reject that person and not marry him,” said Maggie Wright of Burleson, Texas, in defense of Cruz.

“Then recuse yourself. He should recuse himself,” shot back Thomas Mathis, a self-described “West Texas roughneck.” “He admitted it was personal,” Mathis said.

“It’s personal to me because of what Donald Trump did to Ted’s family and his father,” Wright said.

Then an argument erupted between Mathis and Steve Toth, a former member of the Texas legislature, who kept pointing in Mathis’s face. “Put your fingers down!” Mathis said.

“If he said that about your wife or your dad, I hope you’d do the same thing,” Toth said.

“You know what my mama always told me? If you can’t say nothing nice, keep your mouth shut,” Mathis said. “You’re calling me a coward, sir, so who’s being nice?”

“You are a coward,” Toth said.

“You’re a coward,” Mathis said.

“Folks, it’s only July,” Toth told reporters. “I think what Ted’s trying to do is hold Donald’s feet to the fire and make sure that he becomes the kind of candidate we really need to lead this nation.”

Despite his defense of Cruz, Toth said he would be voting for Trump in November.

Mathis told BuzzFeed News later that Toth apologized to him afterwards and that they had prayed together.

Cruz's campaign manager, Jeff Roe, told reporters later that he had warned Cruz about what the reception would be like at the breakfast.

"Coming down the elevator with him, I’m telling him, ‘There’s likely to be boos on introduction,'" Roe said. "Any rational political person here would not go. Right? Like, you got a bad case of the flu last night. That’s the first measurement. The second measurement is, when he goes, don’t take questions. Like, give a speech, juice 'em up, and then get the heck out of the room. And he’s sitting there taking questions...a lot of questions."

"The political things are gonna take care of themselves," Roe said. "If this was all for politics, none of this would happen."

Asked if he was worried about potential for a primary challenge to Cruz in his Senate re-election, Roe said, "You either run scared or unopposed. We always run scared."


Steve King: Defend White People From Attacks Or Face The Dark Ages

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Mark Kauzlarich / Reuters

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Republican Rep. Steve King from Iowa defended on Thursday controversial comments he made earlier in the week in which he suggested “white people” had made more contributions to civilization than any other “subgroup”

Speaking on the Mike Gallagher Show, King said white people need to be defended or Western civilization will erode. Gallagher sarcastically said to King, "Oh, you can’t say that, because you can attack white people, you can’t attack non-white people. That doesn’t work that way in 2016 America."

King responded, saying, "But Mike, we have to plow into the middle of that and do that, or they’re gonna have us retreating to the point where they will have Western civilization eroded and disparaged. I mean, they did that in the beginning of the Dark Ages and we spent centuries of not being able to reason. I don't want that to happen again."

King defended his initial comments, which came in response to fellow MSNBC panelist Charlie Pierce saying this year could be the last time "angry, old white people" dominate the Republican convention.

"And when he said that, here I am sitting there, and he’s actually identified me, although I’m not angry about it, neither is Mike Pence by the way, and so, no one, no seated member of Congress, no individual with their personal sovereignty should be insulted like that," said King.

King continued, "And it was done on national television. And the answer to that, if you’re going to disparage angry, old white people, as they should be off the scene and he’d be happy about that, then I just pointed out to him, why don’t you identify any group of people in Western civilization and the contributions of Western civilization are the greatest of any civilization in the world in the history of the world. And we’re beneficiaries of that and we built upon that and we borrowed from other cultures and civilizations. And I made that point and I said, name some other group that’s contributed more. Well, then they were all flabbergasted."

Trump Jr. Says Ted Cruz Actually Helped Unite Republicans Behind His Father

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“If there were any stragglers, I didn’t see many, but if there were any stragglers out there, he united them behind my father, so I think he did a phenomenal job.”

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Donald Trump Jr. said on Thursday that people see through Ted Cruz, adding that the Texas senator's speech on Wednesday had inadvertently helped unite Republicans behind his father.

"Listen, I think there was a lot of malignment. I think even from his as well. He plays the angel but that's never been the case. He's pretty good at that. Listen, honestly, I think people have seen through him and if there's one thing this cycle has done it's exposed a lot of that," Trump Jr. told radio host Laura Ingraham.

"If there's one thing Ted did was he united everyone, because they all said 'Oh my god, enough is enough,'" Trump's son added. "You know, look at the alternative. The alternative is Hillary Clinton. Are you crazy? So Ted did the best job of pushing everyone into the camp. If there were any stragglers, I didn't see many, but if there were any stragglers out there, he united them behind my father, so I think he did a phenomenal job."

Trump Jr. also criticized Utah Sen. Mike Lee for his role in calling for a roll call vote prior to Trump's nomination at the convention.

"It was crazy, everyone was into it," Trump Jr. said of the nomination. "There wasn't this divisiveness I keep seeing in the media. You have Mike Lee, Cruz's best friend, he's running around looking for a TV camera, never met a camera he didn't love pulling off his credentials and throwing them onto the floor in dramatic fashion. Then, two second later when the camera turns off he picks up his credentials he runs, tries to find another camera. Like, wait, didn't I just see you do that about fifty yards over there. It's so phony and so ridiculous but it creates a message."


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When George W. Bush's 2000 Convention Featured A Latino Theme And Vicente Fernandez

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Talk to enough Latino Republicans and you'll hear about it. Whispered in reverent, nostalgia-tinged tones, the 2000 convention was a time when Latinos and the GOP were amigos.

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The message was clear: Latinos loved Bush, and he loved them back!

The message was clear: Latinos loved Bush, and he loved them back!

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Bush talked about his Hispanic friends and they vouched for his character.

Bush talked about his Hispanic friends and they vouched for his character.

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"I'm proud of the Latino blood that flows in the Bush family," he said, after his nephew George P. Bush made an appearance.

"I'm proud of the Latino blood that flows in the Bush family," he said, after his nephew George P. Bush made an appearance.

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"Family values don't end at the Rio Grande valley," Bush said.

"Family values don't end at the Rio Grande valley," Bush said.

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"Latinos and African Americans many times get the short end of the stick," Bush continued. "Sometimes the discrimination is obvious. Other times it's so subtle you could miss it if you're not watching, but my friends tell me this: If you're on the receiving end, you feel it."

"Latinos and African Americans many times get the short end of the stick," Bush continued. "Sometimes the discrimination is obvious. Other times it's so subtle you could miss it if you're not watching, but my friends tell me this: If you're on the receiving end, you feel it."

CSPAN

As if that wasn't enough, then Vicente Fernandez sang "Cielito Lindo"!

As if that wasn't enough, then Vicente Fernandez sang "Cielito Lindo"!

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The Texas delegation swayed.

The Texas delegation swayed.

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And gringos sang.

And gringos sang.

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We probably won't see something like this before Donald Trump speaks tonight.

We probably won't see something like this before Donald Trump speaks tonight.

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Times have changed.

Times have changed.

CSPAN


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