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Ted Cruz Finally Endorses Donald Trump

Trump has insulted Cruz’s wife and repeatedly said Cruz’s father helped kill JFK.
Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump speaks, as Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, listens, during the Republican presidential debate sponsored by CNN, Salem Media Group and the Washington Times at the University of Miami, Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Coral Gables, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump speaks, as Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, listens, during the Republican presidential debate sponsored by CNN, Salem Media Group and the Washington Times at the University of Miami, Thursday, March 10, 2016, in Coral Gables, Fla. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

WASHINGTON ― Although he once called the man a sniveling coward and said he’d never support someone who insulted his family, Sen. Ted Cruz endorsed Donald Trump for president on Friday.

“After many months of careful consideration, of prayer and searching my own conscience,” Cruz wrote on his Facebook page, “I have decided that on Election Day, I will vote for the Republican nominee, Donald Trump.”

Trump dubbed the Texas senator “Lyin’ Ted” during the Republican primary contest, as the two fought fiercely for the GOP nomination. In a primetime speech at the Republican National Convention in July, Cruz pointedly refused to endorse Trump, urging the audience to “vote your conscience” and exiting to a chorus of boos.

The next morning, Trump insinuated that Cruz’s father had something to do with the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. There’s nothing to support the idea of a connection between Rafael Cruz and Lee Harvey Oswald, but Trump claimed “there was a picture on the front page of the National Enquirer that does have credibility.”

Cruz, for his part, denounced Trump that day for having insulted both his father and his wife. “I am not in the habit of supporting people who attack my wife and attack my father,” he said.

Except that apparently he is.

Watch Heidi Cruz’ reaction to her husband’s RNC speech in July. (Video by Rick Perlstein.)

In his endorsement, Cruz did not address Trump’s attacks on his family. Instead, he suggested that he had always planned to back the Republican Party’s nominee and said that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is a really bad option.

“I’ve made this decision for two reasons,” Cruz wrote. “First, last year, I promised to support the Republican nominee. And I intend to keep my word.

“Second, even though I have had areas of significant disagreement with our nominee, by any measure Hillary Clinton is wholly unacceptable — that’s why I have always been #NeverHillary.”

Signs that Cruz was having a change of heart emerged this week, particularly when he thanked Trump on Twitter for endorsing the Cruz position on one element of a government funding bill.

“If he announces he endorses, it destroys his political brand,” an anonymous former Cruz campaign worker told Politico.

Trump, who said in July that he would not accept a Cruz endorsement, accepted Cruz’s endorsement in a statement on his website on Friday.

“I am greatly honored by the endorsement of Senator Cruz,” Trump said. “We have fought the battle and he was a tough and brilliant opponent.”

This article has been updated to include Trump’s statement.

Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.

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