Day Three Of The Republican Convention Got A Little Wild

Can someone explain to me why the Trump people allowed Cruz to talk tonight? They knew Cruz wasn’t going to endorse Trump. They — and we — had Cruz’s prepared remarks. Did Trump’s people think that Cruz was going to have a change of heart? I’m not sure why the Trump campaign would bank on that. There are Cruz’s ideological disagreements with Trump, but it’s also worth remembering that Trump intimated that Cruz’s father was involved in the John F. Kennedy assassination and attacked Cruz’s wife. So, why give Cruz a prime-time speaking slot?

Newt Gingrich’s speech emphasized that LGBTQ Americans, among others, would be worse off in other nations. This construction of the nature of freedom in American identity, here in reference to Muslim fundamentalist governments, is reminiscent of the anti-Soviet framing during the Reagan era. Here, Gingrich is emphasizing comparative freedom versus talking about what freedom means in terms of the Republican platform for LGBTQ Americans, for example. As a side note, Gingrich lobbied hard to become Trump’s VP. He’s staked a lot on his dreams of higher office. According to Bloomberg, the FEC postponed a debt resettlement plan designed to spur Gingrich’s repayment of $4.6 million in debts from past campaigns.