Cruz: Trump hasn’t apologized for personal insults
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) on Saturday defended his decision to endorse Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, even though Trump has not apologized for insulting Cruz’s family.
{mosads}”Heidi and my dad and I, we talked about it and we made a decision together — that we are going to choose to forgive him,” Cruz said during an interview with The Texas Tribune.
During their bitter fight during the presidential primaries, Trump posted an unflattering photo of Cruz’s wife, Heidi, threatening to “spill the beans” on her, and floated the conspiracy theory that Cruz’s father was involved in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
When asked if Trump had apologized to Cruz, the Texas senator said “he has not,” even after private phone conversations in which Trump thanked Cruz for the endorsement.
Cruz said that he did not demand an apology as a condition for his endorsement because “at the end of the day, it’s not about me; it’s not about my family. It’s about the country.”
“When I sat down with [GOP vice presidential nominee] Mike Pence, when I talked with the campaign, I said, ‘If you want my support, what do I care about? I care about the Supreme Court. I care about the Bill of Rights.’
“And so my ask was not a personal ask to apologize to my family. But it was … ‘Give a commitment of something meaningful on the Supreme Court.’
“My faith teaches to forgive with or without an apology.”
Throughout the hourlong interview, Cruz was asked if he stood by his criticisms of Trump and whether he now believes Trump is qualified to be the president of the United States.
Cruz answered by repeatedly stating that Americans have a “binary choice” in the election and that Trump is a better option for the country on the whole than Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Cruz on Friday endorsed Trump after telling the voters to “vote their conscience” during the Republican National Convention in July in what was seen as a major snub.
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