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Ted Cruz Tag

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) have announced they voted for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump in early voting. However, neither one said Trump's name:
“I stand where I’ve stood all fall and all summer," the Wisconsin Republican said on "Fox & Friends." "In fact, I already voted here in Janesville for our nominee last week in early voting."

Amidst the multitudes of reports on the scores of Republicans abandoning Trump, there doesn't seem to be much coverage of those who have decided to stick with Trump.  Ben Carson, of course, is also still supporting Trump, and  Mike Pence has been quite strong in support of his running mate.  Quite a few other prominent Republicans are also not jumping off the Trump train. Ted Cruz has stated that he is sticking with his recent decision to support Trump and that he's doing so for the same reasons he made the decision in the first place. Politico reports:
The Texas senator told a local TV station in Muleshoe, Texas, on Monday that despite lewd video showing Trump joking of unwanted sexual advances on women he would still back Trump over Hillary Clinton. "I am supporting the Republican nominee because I think Hillary Clinton is an absolute disaster. Now my differences with Donald, I have articulated at great length during the campaign. And I tried all my might," Cruz told Maggan Rennels of Channel 6. "It was an amazing journey."

Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced on Facebook that he will indeed vote for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump in November. https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/779403960692072448

When Senator Cornyn ran for re-election in 2014 he received a bevy of endorsements, but one was missing -- that of Texas' Junior Senator Cruz. Cornyn easily won the primary and went on to win the general election handily, maintaining his status as the number two ranking Senate Republican. On CNN Thursday, Cornyn indicated he has zero plans to endorse his Senate companion. Sure, it's only 2016, but Cornyn's numerous attempts to bring Cruz into the fold were repeatedly rebuffed. Their relationship was further strained when Cornyn killed a would-be Cruz filibuster over the debt ceiling.

A little levity to kick off your evening -- yesterday, the good folks of Bad Lip Reading released an abbreviated and hilarious rendition of Senator Cruz's controversial RNC speech. If you're not familiar with Bad Lip Reading, they dub over clips of all kinds (not just political) with nonsensical garble.

This is now one of my top five favorite moments in convention speeches. Senator Cruz was given a prime time slot in Wednesday's Republican National Convention lineup. Cruz didn't encourage convention goers and watchers to vote Trump, rather to vote their conscience. When delegates realized he wasn't going to explicitly endorse Donald Trump, they began booing and jeering. Then, Donald Trump made an entrance before Cruz had finished his speech. That moment in all its glorious awkwardness:

Welcome to our live coverage of the third night of this year's Republican National Convention! Primetime speeches kick off at 7:30 EST. Watch speakers live and see real time commentary from political media and LI authors. I'll be updating throughout the evening as the situation warrants. Full speeches can be found beneath the Twitter feeds as they're available.

The lineup:

Even though his official campaign for the presidency is over, Ted Cruz isn't taking a vacation. Last Tuesday Cruz began conducting a hearing:
...investigating...“Willful Blindness: Consequences of Agency Efforts To Deemphasize Radical Islam in Combating Terrorism.”... This hearing will likely focus on which figures within the federal government worked to squelch any research connecting the dots between local Muslim Brotherhood officials, these individual terrorists, and foreign terror networks. Senators on the committee now have an opportunity to expose the Muslim Brotherhood influence within DHS and the FBI, their invidious “Countering Violent Extremism” Agenda, and their hand in covering up counter-terrorism investigations. They can demonstrate how the federal government has hamstrung local law enforcement by refusing to cooperate and share information regarding jihadists living in their communities.
One question is whether anyone's listening except those already disposed to be concerned about how the Obama administration is handling the problem.

Back in 2014, the Obama administration announced its plan to "give up its last remaining authority over the technical management of the internet" by giving "the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an international nonprofit group, control over the database of names and addresses that allows computers around the world to connect to each other." The response in many quarters was less than enthusiastic. The New Republic noted at the time:
A Wall Street Journal columnist described it as “America’s Internet surrender.” Said one member of Congress: “Giving up control of ICANN will allow countries like China and Russia, that don’t place the same value in freedom of speech, to better define how the internet looks and operates.”

Last month, I wrote about Harry Reid's statement that he is "fairly certain" the Democrats will retake the Senate this year, and as I noted, it is a very real possibility given a number of factors.  The Democrats need win only five seats to retake the Senate (four if Hillary wins the WH), the Republicans are defending 24 seats to the Democrats' 10, and many of the states in play—Florida, Wisconsin, Illinois, New Hampshire—went to Obama in both 2008 and 2012. As we consider and discuss the importance of the Supreme Court and who will be nominating the next Justice who will replace Justice Scalia—and potentially two (or more) others—during his or her term, it may be a good idea to think about the Senate races across the country and to do what we can to ensure that the Senate is not lost to Democrats. No matter who wins the general and nominates the next Justice/s, the Senate is still the body that confirms a presidential nomination to the Court.  A Democrat-controlled Senate, I think we can all agree, would be a disaster on many levels, but particularly so in light of the upcoming Supreme Court nominee/s.

Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee. Presumably he will face off against Hillary Clinton. Given the intense feelings and turmoil resulting from Ted Cruz suspending his campaign, I thought it would be useful to solicit views from all of the Legal Insurrection authors. Most of the authors took me up on the offer. The opinions below, listed in alphabetical order by last name or pseudonym, are the opinions of each individual author. I think you will be surprised at the breadth of opinion, from someone who was for Trump long before it was cool to be for Trump, to diehard #NeverTrump-ers. And many variations in between. As for me. Well, you'll have to find my name in the list. Hopefully I did alphabetical order better than I do math.

Is Donald Trump the Republican nominee? Not *technically,* but it is much, much more likely than a day ago. There is an ever so slight possibility that Trump could be denied 1237 delegates going into the convention. I hope Cruz fights on. [Update - not to be, Cruz suspends campaign.] Conservatives on Twitter wasted no time in assessing the implications of The Trumpublican Party: https://twitter.com/EWErickson/status/727634645404270596 https://twitter.com/philipaklein/status/727634781278711808

Indiana votes today. The finally tallies could make or break Senator Cruz's 2016 White House aspirations. Prior to Hoosiers heading to the ballot box, Trump was ahead in the polls.

The Republican delegate situation:

Immediately after winning the primary, Trump tweeted: