Watch: Donald Trump Brings Up Ted Cruz's Dad and Lee Harvey Oswald, Says He Doesn't Want Ted Cruz's Endorsement

More than 100 days left until the election.

RNC

Donald Trump talked to volunteers in Cleveland on Friday morning to thank them for their help and pronounce the Republican convention and his speech a success. Trump also addressed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's speech Wednesday night, where Cruz, who finished second in the Republican primaries, urged delegates to vote their conscience and got booed. Afterward, Trump surrogates including Chris Chrstie, another failed presidential candidate, called Cruz's speech shameful. "We made a promise to each other," Christie said afterward, "the seventeen of us."

This morning, Trump suggested the media made too big a deal out of the Cruz speech. "What happened?" Trump asked. "Somebody got booed the hell out of the place by thousands and thousands of people." He also challenged assertions that the party didn't have unity. "Unity?" he continued. "There wasn't one person in the room, including the Texas delegation."

Trump offered that Cruz "may have ruined his career," for which he felt bad. He predicted Cruz would endorse him in the future but said he didn't want it. "What difference does it make? I don't want his endorsement," he said. "Ted, stay home, relax, enjoy yourself."

Trump then addressed the two personal attacks—on Cruz's wife and on his father—cited for Cruz's decision not to endorse Trump

Trump denied that he made fun of Cruz's wife's appearance, saying Cruz's wife, "a very beautiful woman," and children were the "best thing he's got going." He blamed Ted Cruz and a Cruz super PAC for starting the feud by sending a risqué photo of Melania Trump to Utah voters, who he said did not particularly take well to such photos.

Trump also defended bringing up the possibility of a connection between Ted Cruz's father (who Trump called a "lovely guy" and Lee Harvey Oswald. "All I did was point out the fact that on the cover of the National Enquirer there was a picture of him and crazy Lee Harvey Oswald having breakfast," Trump said. "I had nothing to do with it." Trump insisted Cruz never denied it was his father in the photo.

"This was a magazine that, frankly, in many respects, should be very respected," Trump insisted. "They got O.J, they got Edwards, I mean, if that was The New York Times they woud've got a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting."

"This had nothing to do with me," Trump said of the Oswald-Cruz story, "except I might have pointed it out, but it had nothing to do with me. I have no control over anything. I might've pointed it out."

Trump insisted the Enquirer had "credibility" because they'd get sued if they ran photos that were mislabeled. While Cruz, as Trump mentioned, did not deny the picture, it's highly unlikely the photo depicts Cruz's father. It is also a photo of a group of men, including Oswald, handing out pamphlets, not a photo of Oswald and another man "having breakfast."

Vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, who endorsed Cruz before the Indiana primary, was at the event standing on stage with Trump.

Watch an excerpt of Trump's remarks below:

Comments

[Cytotoxic]

This is definitely the guy Americans should give nuclear codes to.

[IndyEleven]

Of all the things to ding Trump for, this seems like one of the silliest and one I keep seeing various places. Do we really think he's just going to nuke various countries for no reason or because they make him mad? He probably could have had some murdered at some point with his money and contacts, is there reason to believe he's done that?

I hate defending this asshat, but I've yet to see anyone make a coherent case he's going to rain fire on Moscow on Jan 21, 2017.

[WTF]

There are pants that need to be shat.

[Agammamon]

He couldn't even if he wanted to.

Secretary of Defense (or Asst in his absence) must also provide confirmation codes for launch. Then there's the notification requirements. All that would shut down anyone who wanted to launch on a whim - he's going ot have to convince a lot of people before he can nuke Russia over invading Ukraine.

As for trying to force a quick strike - the guy carrying the football is a senior military officer. He ain't handing over the codes unless he's also convinced that there's no time.

And then there's the convincing the individual commanders that releasing weapons is a good idea. We're sitting at DEFCON 5 for decades and suddenly a launch order pops up. Questions are going to be asked. This isn't the Cold War.

It not like there's an actual 'launch the nukes' button.

Putin has more control over his country's nuclear arsenal than the US president does.

[John Titor]

Exactly. The hotter parts of the Cold War were terrifying because they were stand-offs where there was a real possibility of people going along with the nuke-slinging out of sheer necessity. And even then there were incidents with primitive computer errors that were confirmed and fixed before we went all Strangelove. Launching nukes now still requires the massive cooperation but utterly lacks the desperation of a Cold War scenario. It's the difference between an old Western movie shootout and a mass shooting.

[Voros McCracken]

I'm having trouble following the current narrative: is Trump going to start nuclear war with Russia, or is he secretly a top Putin ally. I'm pretty sure it can't be both, can it?

The problem with Donald Trump is not some random thing he might theoretically do, it's that he's Donald Fucking Trump; a reality TV star desperate for attention who has managed to shoehorn himself into a situation where he gets more attention than anyone on the planet.

We don't have to speculate on who he is, we've known that for a couple decades now.

[Bubba Jones]

I have bad news. For decades the missile codes were set to all zeros.

[John Titor]

Yes, because SAC argued that it would just slow down response time. Hell, it took decades to actually get them to have lock codes on their nukes.

Setting all the codes to zeros reflects poorly on the possibility of a lone nutter using a nuclear weapon, but it's an entirely different thing to have a launch order come down from the President and to take it seriously. America's nuclear weapons problems have always been related to human and mechanical error, not some gung-ho President screaming 'NUKES AWAY' and everyone listening to him regardless of the context.

[Bubba Jones]

True. The point of the all zeroes was to make sure the local commanders could respond even if they were cut off.

So, hopefully we can trust them to ignore a batty Trump.

But can we trust ALL of them?

[Illocust]

Pretty much, this guy would prefer to verbally humiliate his enemies than kill them. Making them a laughing stock strokes his ego.

[Cytotoxic]

Lots of hope projected as fact here. See also 'Iran totally won't nuke Tel Aviv'. Thanks guys but I really prefer to keep a lot of distance between nuke delivery and fascistic nutjobs. I guess I'm just a wet blanket that way.

[John Titor]

Educate yourself on American nuclear weapons policy before you write.

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

prefer to keep a lot of distance between nuke delivery and fascistic nutjobs

Hmm, my mistake. All this time I thought you were in favor of Hillary being prez.

[MarkLastname]

Has Iran nuked Tel Aviv yet? No doubt that's another country we need to invade to make the world safe for democracy again.

[Ed]

I thought he was supposed to be a stooge of Moscow?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

Larry Fine had orange hair.

Coincidence?

[Gaear Grimsrud]

I think not!

[pronomian]

I wouldn't want the endorsement of anyone who's dad who was involved in killing the president. I didn't know rachel and june tried to endorse trump.

[Playa Manhattan.]

According to twitter, second shooting in Munich.

[John]

Stop distracting us from the important issues like whether Donald Trump said something about Ted Cruz's wife.

[WTF]

The motives of the shooters shall forever remain mysterious.

[WTF]

Now they are reporting second shooting was false alarm.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

The reports on this incident seem more scattershot than usual. Good time to step out for a drink and check for details later.

[Playa Manhattan.]

Is it already drink o'clock?

[R C Dean]

Is the sun over the horizon? Then yes, it is.

[WTF]

Always.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

I don't time my drinking.

[pronomian]

It's after 5 somewhere in the world.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

He definitely is more entertaining than Hillary.

[MarkLastname]

I like my presidents boring. Comatose optimally, but boring if not.

[Crusty Juggler]

Trump insisted Cruz never denied it was his father in the photo

If it wasn't true he would have denied it.

[pronomian]

Or, he's not denying it because he thinks by denying it the denial would not be a denial but an affirmation, and he doesn't want to affirm the affirmation by denying it thus having to deny the denial.

[John]

What is the big deal? Why does Trump have to want Cruz's endorsement? And even if he did what would be the point of saying so now that it isn't going to happen?

And as far as the whole wife and father JFK thing, who cares? Trump makes a valid point, it wasn't him that published the thing about Cruz's father. If Cruz is that pissed off about it, why isn't he suing the National Enquirer.

What am I missing here? Why should I or anyone care about this?

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

Well you cared enough to stop by and throw out some words of support for Trump...

[John]

I am saying I don't see why it is a big deal. If you think it should be a big deal, i would like to hear why. That is what I am asking. You tell me why Ed thinks this is important enough to warrant a post, because I can't see why it is.

[Agammamon]

Its a pretty shitty and low-brow, even - dare I say it - *vulgar* thing to admit to paying attention to National Enquirer, let alone using one of their stories as ammo for a PR hit.

Its downright unPresidential.

[WTF]

Its downright unPresidential.

I don't know, that bar has been set pretty low over the last few administrations.

[darius404]

Being unPresidential only matters if they don't have an R in front of their name.

[John]

How is playing dirty in politics "unpresidential"? That is going to come as a hell of a surprise to pretty much every President in history.

[John]

I don't see how the National Enquirer is any worse than any other publication. I really don't. They have been right more than a few times. More importantly, they have been right about several stories the major media refused to report on because it didn't fit their political narrative. They were the ones who broke the story about Edwards' love child when the major media wouldn't report it. They were the ones who broke the story about the mayor of LA banging some Univision newsbabe and using public funds to take care of her when the "credible" press in LA wouldn't touch it.

When you contrast that with the sorry record of negligence and often outright fabrication that places like the NYT and the major networks have engaged in, I don't see why the NE is any kind of a disreputable publication in comparison.

[Bubba Jones]

Because bat boy

[John]

That was the weekly world news.

[cavalier973]

It's a big deal because it shows what a loonie Trump is. First, because he is peddling nonsense that he apparently believes, and second, because, rather than roll his eyes and respond to Cruz's non-endorsement with: "That's just, like, Ted's opinion, man"--like a normal human being would--he feels compelled to address it by peddling nonsense that he apparently believes.

[John]

I guess I am not normal because that is the response I would give. It is what it is. What is Trump supposed to do or say about it? Basically you don't like him and are pissed off he didn't grovel and admit that he isn't worthy of being the nominee unless Ted Cruz endorses him. Sorry but that is not how any of the normal people I know would have reacted.

[cavalier973]

Trump didn't have to say anything since the story was over. Focus,on attacking Hillary. Trump can't,leave it alone, though, because he is a loonie.

[John]

He was asked the question. He didn't bring it up. They asked him. He couldn't refuse to answer.

[cavalier973]

There is a way to handle such questions without broadcasting that one is a loonie.

[MarkLastname]

"There is a way to handle such questions without broadcasting that one is a loonie."
Of course broadcasting his looniness is precisely what got so many people lie John to like him.

[MarkLastname]

He should have said nothing. Instead he went and bitched like a petty narcissistic cunt. Complaining about things like not taking pledges of loyalty and whatnot also makes him sound a bit authoritarian.

[commod dreamt of some bagels]

If Trump had accepted the nondorsment and called it a rousing endorsement, he'd be leagues ahead. But Trump is not a clever man and he's not running a serious campaign. He's a stuffed ego walking about like a human being.

[You Sound Like a Prog (MJG)]

Trump denied that he made fun of Cruz's wife's appearance, saying Cruz's wife, "a very beautiful woman," and children were the "best thing he's got going."

Hopefully Cruz will fall into the same trap and respond, "No they're not!"

[John]

That is an interesting question. I can see why he might be but I am not so sure. Suppose he had done that, would any of the Cruz supporters who are not voting for him now have changed their minds? I don't see why. And if it wouldn't change Curz supporters' minds, whose minds would it change?

Then there is the flip side of that. By playing it as the non endorsement it was, it distances him from Cruz. Fairly or not, a lot of voters in this country don't like Cruz or his brand of conservatism. To those people Cruz's non endorsement is likely a positive for Trump. If nothing else, it makes the usual Democratic attack that Trump is "an evil conservative Republican" ring a bit hollow when "Mr Evil Conservative Republican" himself Ted Cruz wont' endorse him.

Time will tell but I think it is at least possible that embracing the "non endorsement" might help Trump by distancing him from the conservative wing of the Republican party. That is clearly what he thinks.

[pronomian]

If cruz's dad wasn't involved then why is he so adamant about denying it? Hammmmm? My friend once told me he could tell if someone was a commie, ask them. If they say no then you know they are because all commies lie. So, we can use that warped sense of logic here.

[commod dreamt of some bagels]

Thin-skinned chump can't stomach a few jabs. Shut up and take it, jackass, you deserve some knuckle skin.

[Free Market Socialist $park?]

These masturbation euphemisms are getting out of hand.

[Brett L]

Is commod not talking to his member?

[Bobarian (Would Chip Her)]

It's all he ever talks to.

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

Sorry, I can't keep up with all the Trump pants-shitting today.

[waffles]

I only have so many pairs of pants to shit.

[Cdr Lytton]

Thank god it's laundry day!

[Derp-o-Matic 5000]

My only regret is that I wore but one pair of pants to shit over Trump today.

[Princess Trigger]

This is Trump pivoting into a Regular Presidential Candidate.
Or is that evolve?
Whatever, he sucks at it.

Watch Pence standing in the back being a potted plant as the line about the enquirer comes up. If he had half a brain, or half a soul, he'd run.

[John]

What would you have had him say? Would groveling and saying how sorry he was to ever have questioned Cruz's father been any better? I don't see how.

What Trump does that other Republicans have never done is refuse to give any credence to media created controversies. Any other Republican would have groveled and said how sorry they were and how badly they wanted Cruz's endorsement. In doing so, they would have made the problem a hundred times worse by looking defensive and admitting the media was right in saying it is a big deal. Trump doesn't do that.

The down side of that is that occasionally the media is right and it is a big deal. And in the past that was a real downside. Today? Not so much. People loath and mistrust the media so much, I don't think they have the power to do much to someone who refuses to back down to them even if they are right. The other thing is that the news cycle moves so fast now and the attention span of the media and public is so short, even when the media does have a point and the chance to do some damage, as long as the candidate doesn't act defensive or admit it is a big deal, it rarely stays in the public consciousness long enough to matter.

[cavalier973]

Watch "Zootopia". The secret to answering a press-conference question is to pose a counter-question, then answering that.

"So you stand by your loonie statement about Ted Cruz's father?"

"Was I a little harsh on Ted Cruz? Maybe I was, but I wasn't nearly as hard on him as I'm going to be on crooked Hillary."

[MarkLastname]

Pretty much anything other than what he did say. He could have *gasp* even tried to seem magnanimous (politicians are supposed to at least try to appear that way) and said he was disappointed but that's Ted's right and we hope he changes his mind. Or he could say he doesn't feel he needs the endorsement. Whatever.

You act like he just had not choice by to say the douchiest thing short of 'i banged his wife and his kids are probably really mine.' Like he just had to be such a prepubescent twat about it. No choice at all.

[The Late P Brooks]

These grapes displease me. They are sour.

[John]

Can you have sour grapes when you won?

[cavalier973]

Cruz (whispering): "It's that Baby-face Nelson."

Trump: "Who's said that? I'M GEORGE! NELSON!! NOT! BABY-FACE!!!"

Trump is like an alley-cat, and his own damn humors are swinging him by the tail.

[pronomian]

And these pretzels are making me thirsty.

[The Fusionist]

Re the "pledge to support the primary winner" thing, I found this article from March 30:

"Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and John Kasich all stepped back from their earlier pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee during Tuesday night's CNN town hall....

""No, I don't anymore," Trump said, when asked by CNN's Anderson Cooper if he continued "to pledge to support whoever the Republican nominee is?"

"Trump said he has "been treated very unfairly" by the Republican National Committee and party establishment figures. The billionaire front-runner accused rival Cruz of "essentially saying the same thing" in response to a question about the pledge.

"Earlier, Cruz had told Cooper when asked the same question: "I'm not in the habit of supporting someone who attacks my wife and my family ... I think nominating Donald Trump would be an absolute trainwreck, I think it would hand the general election to Hillary Clinton."

""Trump said Cruz "doesn't need to support me, I have tremendous support right now from the people."
"I don't really want him to do something he's not comfortable with," he said."

So, there's that.

[The Fusionist]

Trump had the chance to say, "no matter what I said about Cruz's ugly wife, and his dad, and Lee Harvey Oswald, he promised to support me if I win just like I promised to support him if he won. A promise is a promise."

Instead, Trump said he won't pledge support for the primary winner anymore and doesn't expect Cruz to support him if it makes him uncomfortable.

[The Fusionist]

What's the matter with the media's short-term memory nowadays?

[pronomian]

What was the question?

[SIV]

Ted Cruz might want to look into "opening up the libel laws" if he feels that the National Enquirer unfaily,and with malice, linked his father to the assassination of JFK.

[cavalier973]

So you believe the story?

[Whiteowl]

Trump doesn't "destroy" Cruz. Both of them have acted like squabbling kids and without class.

[Tom487]

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