Ted Cruz was booed off the stage at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday after he refused to directly endorse Donald Trump.
Cruz was initially given rapt attention by the audience at the Quicken Loans Arena, but he mentioned Trump's name only a handful of times. At the close of his speech, instead of even paying lip service to Trump or even making some anti-Hillary comments, Cruz closed out by talking about his own parents and then saying "we need to make the most this moment" and to "vote your conscience."
Cue the boos. People were mad.
They were VERY mad.
Trump, however, tweeted after the speech that he didn't mind.
It's true that it wasn't a surprise: Cruz's speech didn't depart from his prepared remarks, which were sent to Trump and the RNC ahead of time.
In case anyone was wondering if Cruz misspoke or forgot to endorse Trump, he quashed those ideas to Politico's Glenn Thrush.
But one high-powered Republican donor was so mad that he had to be restrained from physically attacking Cruz, CNN reported.
Cruz's wife, Heidi Cruz, was also heckled by the crowd with yells of "Goldman Sachs!" She was reportedly rushed out by security, according to Bloomberg News, after the speech.
Newt Gingrich, who spoke a few minutes after Cruz, tried to do damage control, praising Trump's "generosity" in allowing his former Republican foes to speak. "With no requirement for endorsement, he encouraged his competitors to speak again," Gingrich said. "I think you misunderstood one paragraph of what Ted Cruz said. You can vote your conscious for anyone who can uphold the Constitution. In this election, there is just one candidate who will uphold the Constitution."
Chris Christie called Cruz's speech "awful," "selfish" and that all the Republican contenders for president had all agreed to support the nominee. "Donald Trump gave him the opportunity to speak here at this convention tonight, and I think it was too cute," Christie told CNN.
"He's self-centered. It's all about Ted Cruz. All he did is ruin his political career," Arkansas Republican national committeeman Jonathan Barnett told CNN.