CLEVELAND—Roger Stone, longtime conservative ratfucker and Donald Trump confidant, wants to destroy Ted Cruz. “I intend to take his U.S. Senate seat away from him now,” Stone told me on Thursday afternoon, when I spotted him on the streets outside the Republican National Convention. “I’m out actively trying to recruit a candidate.”
Stone insists that, though Cruz had reportedly submitted his speech to the Trump team in advance, he had nonetheless betrayed the Republican nominee. “Every single candidate who ran against Donald was asked to speak, and they all said, including Tricky Ted, that they would support the ticket,” Stone said. “Not use the word ‘endorse,’ but support the ticket and say he was voting for Trump-Pence.”
By not doing that, he said, Cruz has committed “self-immolation,” even if Trump loses. “We’re elephants. We have long memories,” said Stone, a former aide to Richard Nixon. “Nelson Rockefeller torched himself by refusing to endorse the nominee, Barry Goldwater. Contrast that with Richard Nixon, who knows Goldwater is going to lose—in this case, I don’t think Trump is going to lose—but he goes to the convention, introduces Goldwater, endorses him, campaigns for him in 38 states. Ted is duplicitous. He’s treacherous. He’s a treacherous prick who no one will ever trust again.”
He wasn’t done: “Why do people take an instantaneous dislike to Ted Cruz? To save time! He’s an oily, odious, tricky, nasty guy with no friends. By the way, as soon as she figures out that he’s not going to be president, his wife will leave him. He’s a creep.” That last bit is a widely shared belief. But Cruz is also now the de facto leader of the Never Trump conservative resistance. His political future depends not just on Trump losing, but on Trump being completely repudiated by the Republican Party. It’s war.
