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TWO MONTHS AFTER his refusal to endorse Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy prompted outrage at the Republican National Convention, Senator Ted Cruz said that he would vote for his former bitter primary rival.
“After many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience, I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump,” the Texas senator wrote in a statement posted on Facebook.
It comes months after he called Trump a “pathological liar”, “utterly amoral” and “serial philanderer”.
“A year ago, I pledged to endorse the Republican nominee, and I am honouring that commitment,” he added. “And if you don’t want to see a Hillary Clinton presidency, I encourage you to vote for him.”
Cruz’s move represents a dramatic turnaround after a primary campaign during which the two candidates traded increasingly personal insults.
Dismissing Cruz’s early overtures, Trump had attacked the Texas senator, dubbing him “Lyin’ Ted” and suggesting he wasn’t eligible to be president because he was born in Canada (most experts say that he was eligible since his mother was American).
Trump also speculated that Cruz’s father had some connection to Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who killed former president John F Kennedy, and insinuated that Cruz’s wife Heidi was involved in corruption.
At the nadir of their confrontation, Trump tweeted an unflattering picture of Heidi Cruz next to a photo of his own former model wife Melania, along with the text, “The images are worth a thousand words.”
Positioning himself as the true conservative alternative to Trump, Cruz responded by calling the real estate billionaire “utterly amoral,” and “a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country’s ever seen.”
He dropped out of the primary race in May.
During the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, when many expected Cruz to endorse Trump, he told delegates instead to “stand and speak and vote your conscience” amid boos from the convention floor.
Trump responded to Cruz’s endorsement – three days before his crucial first debate with Democratic nominee Clinton – saying he was “greatly honoured.”
If there is to be a silver lining in all this, I hope that those people that used to breathe down the back of your neck in queues, finally get the awareness to give us some personal space.
@Mark Malone: I’m afraid they are still around and continue to do so regardless of restrictions
@Mark Malone: Been thinking something like this. Manners will come back again. Just got to work on the spitting and urinating everywhere now.
There should be greater nuance in the question phrasing e.g. it is not complusory to wear a mask in public spaces, it should be asked if people either wear masks in enclosed spaces (shops/buses etc.) or in crowded public places. Would have been useful also to see fear added to the emotional well-being tracking – probably a prevailing emotion at the start that would hope has declined significantly.
@Spbeak: To suggest that 90% of people wear masks in all public places is just incorrect
@Spbeak: does worry and anxiety not kind of cover fear?
@Jim Smith: well the survey relies on people reporting their own behaviour the true figure probably a bit lower alright
@Jim Smith:
Depends I suppose, on what you call a public space for the purpose of mask wearing.
Walking down a street in the open air is in public, going for a walk on the beach or in a town park with your children is in public, but where social distancing is not an issue, then facemasks are a matter of choice.
From what I observed during December, facemasks were being worn by nearly everyone, certainly greater than 90%, in the places where social distancing was a difficulty, retail parks, shopping centres and such like. If fact most people seemed to be putting on their facemasks before they got out of their cars and were being extremely diligent and responsible about it.
Someone else has suggested that the questions asked in this article are a bit vague, I think they are correct.
@NotMyIreland: not really. Fear is a separate, though related, emotion.
The numbers shown and the ups and down in the infection numbers match. Says everything.
have your say