AUSTIN-Ted Cruz appears uncomfortable defending the man he says he'll vote for in November, Donald Trump.
Addressing a policy forum organized by The Texas Tribune, the Texas senator said Saturday it was "agonizing" making the decision to back Trump, whom he once called a "pathological liar" and "serial philanderer." He denied he caved in to pressure from top Republicans nationally and in his home state, saying he would have faced an outcry no matter what.
"Any path we took, if I supported Donald, if I didn't support Donald, the criticism was going to be there," Cruz told a packed auditorium.
Cruz offered little defense of Trump's past comments on Muslim-Americans. He also said his two young daughters, while campaigning with him in the primaries, had felt the sting of Trump's comments about women. Asked whether he thought Russian President Vladimir Putin was a better leader than President Barack Obama, as Trump suggested, Cruz said, "I have no intention of defending everything Donald Trump says or does."
Cruz rocked the Republican National Convention in Cleveland by avoiding an endorsement of the nominee and instead urging delegates to "vote your conscience." He held out for several months afterward, even as some polls suggested his popularity was slipping nationally and in Texas, where he could face a Republican primary challenge for re-election to the Senate in 2018.
Trump angered Cruz in the primaries by insulting his wife and suggesting, without evidence, that his Cuban-born father could have been linked to the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Cruz said Saturday that he spoke with Trump a day earlier, after announcing that he will vote for the nominee, and Trump "was very gracious" but didn't apologize for what he said about his family.
Cruz said a key reason for changing his mind was Trump's naming of a top Cruz ally, Utah Sen. Mike Lee, in his updated list of potential Supreme Court picks. Asked if he doubts Trump will keep his word about that or other promises, Cruz responded: "I don't think it is productive for me to criticize the Republican nominee today."
Cruz aides say the senator felt boxed in by his past positon on Trump because he had urged voters not to stay home in November but also didn't think any third-party candidates were viable. And he didn't want to be seen by conservatives as aiding Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Asked Saturday, "What happened to 'vote your conscience?'" Cruz responded: "It's a good question and it's still what I would urge everyone to do."
But he added that he is now backing Trump because, "By any measure, Hillary Clinton is manifestly unfit to be president."
The move prompted astonishment, anger among Cruz die-hards with little love for the party's coarse and volatile nominee, and taunts that Cruz is far less consistent than he claims. There was also relief for many Republicans who have worried about the rifts Trump has exposed in the party.
Conservatives who have hung tough in the "Never Trump" camp expressed dismay. Steve Deace, an Iowa radio host, called it "the worst political miscalculation of my lifetime."
"Cruz will not mobilize the
remnant of his base not already supporting Trump, but rather split that remnant and risk turning it against himself," he predicted.
Rick Tyler, a Cruz adviser turned pundit, said he's removing the Cruz bumper sticker from his car. "It's mourning in America for conservatives. We lost our leader today," he told MSNBC.
Cruz has positioned himself as an incorruptible truth teller, and for some of his fans, this went too far.
But Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, recently minted Texas chairman of the Trump campaign and, before that, Cruz's Texas chairman, lauded the move. "Ted's support brings great value to the Trump team as our party coalesces and all conservatives unite to elect Trump and defeat Hillary Clinton," he tweeted.
Trump, in a written statement, said he was "greatly honored by the endorsement of Senator Cruz. We have fought the battle and he was a tough and brilliant opponent. I look forward to working with him for many years to come in order to make America great again."
"This goes a long way to restore some relationship with people who were somewhat frustrated. It certainly helps to heal that wound," Texas Republican Chairman Tom Mechler said by phone Friday afternoon.
He said he's taking Cruz at his word that he'd simply given the matter prayerful consideration, rather than put his finger in the wind. He did take it as a sign of Trump's growing momentum, however.
"Anybody that gets onboard to help our nominee, it's a big plus all the way around," Mechler said. "A lot of things get said in the passion of a presidential campaign. You've just got to let things go. You try not to take offense."
Democrats noted that, in the course of the primaries, Cruz had called Trump a narcissist, bully, sniveling coward and utterly amoral.
"Ted Cruz has no spine," said Manny Garcia, the Texas Democrats' deputy executive director.
Many of Cruz's top advisers have rejected Trump and vowed never to support or work for him. But there is some connective tissue between the camps. Trump's new campaign manager, Kellyanne Conaway, a conservative pollster, ran a pro-Cruz super PAC during the primaries whose main benefactor, Robert Mercer, had fully shifted his own allegiance to Trump.
And Trump's senior communication adviser, Jason Miller, held a similar role in the Cruz campaign, though many other top Cruz staffers had vowed never to work for Trump.
"A lot of his large donors have encouraged this, and the race is really close," said Gary Polland, a former chairman of the Harris County Republican Party and a Houston public television political analyst. The endorsement indicates that he realizes "Trump could actually win," Polland said, and if that happens, "You don't want to have somebody hostile towards you in your own party."
Cruz's detractors gushed venom as the news emerged.
In Austin, Clinton's pick for vice president, Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia, also derided Cruz for embracing someone who had accused his father of involvement in something as heinous as the Kennedy assassination.
"If somebody said that about my dad, they would never have me as a supporter for anything," he said.
The Associated Press writer Will Weissert and The Dallas Morning News staff writers Todd J. Gillman, Katie Leslie and Samantha Ketterer contributed to this report.