Ted Cruz’s Big Night and Big Decision

July 20, 2016

Ted Cruz's Big Night and Big Decision

How do you think Ted Cruz is feeling tonight? If you're disappointed, frustrated, bewildered, or unnerved at how the 2016 election is shaping up for Republicans . . . how would you like to be one of the folks who dedicated several years of his life to this, only to come in second and watch a man light-years from movement conservatism become the nominee?

Our Eliana Johnson has a huge scoop and preview of one important decision Cruz appears to have reached:

Though he accepted a primetime speaking spot at the convention that officially nominated Donald Trump on Tuesday, Cruz will not endorse the Republican nominee, according to two sources familiar with his plans.

. . . Going into tomorrow night's speech, Cruz undoubtedly has Ronald Reagan's 1976 convention speech in mind. Though Reagan narrowly lost the nomination to Gerald Ford that year, his speech succeeded in convincing the delegates gathered in Kansas City that they had chosen the wrong man. (Paul Manafort, now Trump's campaign chairman, was at the time a young operative instrumental in wrangling delegates on Ford's behalf.)

We pretty much know how every other major conservative or GOP figure is handling the Trump nomination. Some are making their peace with it, some are staying away from Cleveland, some are continuing to criticize Trump. What will Cruz's tone be like tonight? If he doesn't formally endorse, will he praise Trump? Will he even acknowledge him? Will he criticize Hillary Clinton to the point where it begins to feel like a de facto endorsement?

Everybody understands the argument, "You have to vote for Trump to stop Clinton." The consequences of a Clinton presidency are vivid and abominable, staring with a national stamp of approval for her history of lies, arrogance, and disregard for the law. But "stop Hillary" is a strange rallying cry for anyone who otherwise argues that conservatives are always on defense. Is there a positive case for Trump that can persuade the likes of Ted Cruz and his most dedicated fans?

Are we absolutely certain Trump's judicial picks will be good ones? Can he really secure the border, or will Trump water down his wall promises? Notice Rick Perry, who also spoke at the convention but who did not endorse or mention Trump from the stage, recently said it's going to be a "digital wall." Then there's this comment from one of Trump's biggest fans in Congress, Representative Chris Collins of New York said it would be a "virtual wall" with "rhetorical deportation."

The logic of "Hillary is terrible, and Trump is an unknown, so you have to roll the dice" is clear. But what if you come up snake-eyes? And considering what we've seen so far, why would any conservative expect Trump to be a lucky pair of dice?

Chris Christie Serves Up the Red Meat

Should Donald Trump have picked Chris Christie to be his running mate? Last night, the New Jersey governor did the political equivalent of looking his best in front of a girlfriend who dumped him, trying to stir regrets and thoughts of what might have been. Christie's gotten a lot of largely deserved mockery in recent months, but he's still a compelling speaker, and he brought his A-game to what could be his last major address at a GOP convention:

We'll never know precisely what went through New Jersey governor Chris Christie's mind in the moments before he took the stage Tuesday night. But one can't help but think he wanted to show that he would have made a much better running mate for Donald Trump than Mike Pence. He certainly remains one of the toughest attack dogs in the Republican party.

It's not often a convention speaker gets a crowd of delegates to chant "LOCK HER UP!" Christie bit into his role with gusto, inviting delegates to "do something fun tonight," to "hold Hillary Clinton accountable for her performance and her character," and asking the delegates to decide whether she was "guilty, or not guilty."

Delegates were enthralled as Christie listed parts of the world "infected by her flawed judgment" — from the overthrow of Qaddafi in Libya to the lame hashtag campaign against Boko Haram to a reference to Syrian dictator Bashir Assad as "a reformer" to her role in beginning the Iran negotiations to coddling the Castro brothers in Cuba. After each prosecutorial case, the delegates gleefully answered, "GUILTY!" and then chanted "LOCK HER UP!"

The media, which had painted Christie as a perpetually humiliated lackey ever since he endorsed Trump, had to give credit where it was due. The Washington Post's Paul Rucker called Christie's speech "a master class on how to prosecute a political opponent." Salina Zito of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review praised his "gripping case to the American people on Clinton's judgment."

It was a little rich to watch Christie hit Clinton for being too kind to Russia, considering Trump's warm words for Vladimir Putin, and for being too kind to brutal mass-murderer Assad when Trump has stated that the United States has "bigger problems than Assad."

But even Trump-skeptic conservative writers saluted Christie's relish for his task of tearing apart Clinton's record as secretary of state. "Effective and energized the room," concluded Guy Benson of Townhall. CNN's Mary Katharine Ham tweeted, "Trump should take notes from Christie on staying on message." Eric Fehrnstrom, formerly a senior aide to Mitt Romney, said Christie was "throwing serious heat, equivalent to a pitcher hitting 100 mph." Praise from anyone on the Romney team was hardly a given tonight.

Twitter Sends Another Controversy-Courting Conservative to Twit-mo

A month ago, I wrote, "When Twitter set up a much-hyped 'Trust and Safety Council', the purpose was to alleviate the concerns of select group of left-wing activists; so far there's no sign the company cares about any vile or threatening messages outside of those council members."

Now we know who else they care about: Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones.

On Tuesday, Twitter barred one of the most egregious and consistent offenders of its terms of service, Milo Yiannopoulos, in an attempt to show that it is cracking down on abuse.

The ban against Mr. Yiannopoulos, a technology editor at the conservative news site Breitbart and known by his Twitter handle, @Nero, follows a campaign of prolonged abuse against Leslie Jones, a comedian and co-star of the recently released "Ghostbusters" movie. The film and its stars have come under fire from various parts of the internet for months, after it was first revealed that the reboot of the 1984 film would feature an all-female cast.

Now, this is Milo Yiannopoulos we're talking about. The only thing he hates more than being unable to speak his mind on Twitter is having no one talk about him. He revels in provocation and being outrageous. But once again, as in the case of another outspoken conservative, Robert Stacy McCain, we don't have any specifics of just did that went over the line.

And Twitter doesn't feel the need to offer any specifics:

In a statement, a Twitter spokesman said: "People should be able to express diverse opinions and beliefs on Twitter. But no one deserves to be subjected to targeted abuse online, and our rules prohibit inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others."

Twitter did not comment directly on Mr. Yiannopoulos's account or actions of the past 48 hours, but the spokesman said over that period, "We've seen an uptick in the number of accounts violating these policies and have taken enforcement actions against these accounts, ranging from warnings that also require the deletion of tweets violating our policies to permanent suspension."

In a brief interview on Tuesday evening, Mr. Yiannopoulos said, "This is the beginning of the end for Twitter."

"Some people are going to find this perfectly acceptable," he said. "Anyone who believes in free speech or is a conservative certainly will not."

If somebody at Twitter High Command, and the Orwellian-sounding "Trust and Safety Council" pointed to a particular Tweet or message from Yiannopoulos that threatened someone or constituted abuse, we could have the debate of whether it warranted shutting down his account. But they won't, so we can't.

And everyone who's not famous and beloved by feminists continues to get all kinds of horrifying and threatening messages, and Twitter does nothing.

Trust and Safety is a joke.

ADDENDA: If you missed it, here's my Facebook Live discussion from yesterday.

I'm scheduled to appear on CNN International around 2:30 today.

The protests in Cleveland have been pretty subdued. "Only five people have been arrested during the first two days of the convention." This could be a great sign and a tribute to the restraint of the protesters and calm methods of the police on duty . . . or it could be a sign that the protesters won't go wild until Thursday.