Ben Shapiro: Donald Trump ‘Orchestrated the Boos’ for Ted Cruz

The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro has an interesting alternative theory about Ted Cruz’s speech to the Republican National Convention on Wednesday night: the Donald Trump campaign “orchestrated the boos.”

Cruz camp confirms: Trump approved speech; Cruz was negotiating to help Trump w/ platform; Trump orchestrated boos https://t.co/DiEMmaQRye

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) July 21, 2016

Shapiro’s source: the Cruz campaign.

Late Wednesday night, a source within the Cruz team informed Daily Wire exclusively that the Trump campaign had sandbagged Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) over his speech at the Republican National Convention. Cruz spoke at the RNC, where he congratulated Trump on his campaign victory, then spoke about the necessity for freedom and finally stated that Americans should “vote your conscience.” He was met with resounding boos on the floor of the convention; his wife Heidi had to be rushed from the room; according to reports, one Republican delegate physically accosted Cruz, and Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson refused to meet with Cruz.

According to the source, the entire Cruz speech was cleared by the Trump campaign. Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign manager, expressly approved the speech at 4:30 PM ET. The source, who was standing on the convention floor at the time of the speech, said that Trump operatives were present, urging the crowd to boo. “This was orchestrated by the Trump campaign to make Senator Cruz a pariah within the party,” said the source.

Read the article here.

Trump tweeted after Cruz’s speech that he had seen the speech in advance and allowed Cruz to give it anyway:

Wow, Ted Cruz got booed off the stage, didn’t honor the pledge! I saw his speech two hours early but let him speak anyway. No big deal!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2016

However, the same crowd that booed Cruz’s speech once they heard it also cheered him when he appeared onstage.

Many Cruz supporters at the convention were bitterly disappointed by the speech, which they hoped would unify the party.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, will be published by Regnery on July 25 and is available for pre-order through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.