Ted Cruz’s Cleveland Rally Interrupted by Donald Trump's Plane
Cruz held a rally in Cleveland that felt more like a campaign event.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Ted Cruz just can’t escape Donald Trump.
Before the Texas senator addresses Trump’s convention Wednesday night, Cruz held a rally that felt more like a campaign event —- and when he said we have a nominee —- boos rang out as Trump’s plane passed overhead.
“In an amazing campaign field of 17 talented dynamic candidates, we beat 15 of those candidates,” Cruz told supporters, adding: “We just didn’t beat 16. Our party now has a nominee” as Trump’s plane descended nearby.
Cruz laughed and said “Alight that was pretty well-orchestrated. Jeff did you email them to fly the plane right when I said that?”
The lines extended around a waterfront restaurant as Cruz came to thank his supporters, in what felt very much like a Cruz campaign event.
Chants of “2020!” and “Cruz! Cruz! Cruz!” broke out after Cruz said “I don’t know what the future holds."
Over two months after he dropped out of the race, the venue looked like a Cruz campaign headquarters: country-themed with barbecue, beer and country music blaring, complete with his campaign logo in a strikingly familiar scene to his Houston, Texas Super Tuesday event.
Cruz campaign veterans like former campaign manager Jeff Roe, communications aides Rick Tyler and Alice Stewart were also on hand.
The event was pegged as a “Thank You” to delegates, but even the RSVP was emblazoned with the Cruz/Fiorina logo.
There is no word on whether Cruz will endorse Trump tonight in the speech he will deliver at the convention and Roe would not say. Roe said the main themes of Cruz’s speech will be “forward-looking and optimistic” charting the path for conservatives going forward.
“Every one of us has an obligation to follow our conscience, to speak the truth and truth is unchanging,” Cruz said at today’s event. “To defend liberty. You know there is a lot of talk about unity. 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.”