[crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] called on his campaign to create a fund to protect Republican delegates from any kind of danger to their personal security.
Known as the “delegate defense fund,” the money raised is said to go toward the safety of delegates. The Cruz camp is looking to raise $500, 000 for this particular cause.
“I cannot overstate the importance of this mission,” Cruz says in a campaign fundraising e-mail with the subject header “death threats.”
“Trump henchman Roger Stone has even promised to disclose the hotels and the room numbers of delegates who are willing to stand up and vote against Donald Trump. “
“The threats are so serious, that part of the convention plan now has to include security at the hotel of every delegate!”
Stone, a former Trump adviser, responded to the Cruz campaign using his comments, telling The Daily Caller in an e-mail statement, “They should send me a royalty check for the use of my name,” he wrote. “I have never advocated violence. CNN took my comments out of context.”
According to the Cruz campaign, “The Delegate Defense Fund will keep delegates updated with timely information regarding threats to their safety and ensure that our campaign is able to protect the integrity of our party and the nominating process.”
“Those of us who play by the rules, stick to our principles and fight hard to defend liberty and freedom do not deserve to be attacked by Donald trump and his goon squad.”
Ken Cuccinelli, a Cruz campaign advisor who is leading up the Texas senator’s delegate hunt, told reporters on Saturday at the RNC meeting that the Trump campaign’s rhetoric is “definitely” on the mind of delegates.
“Especially when they saw [Colo. GOP Chairman Steve House], one of their colleagues, getting death threats,” said Cuccinelli, adding that the delegates he met made “various observations about it and about those tactics in these meetings.”
Cuccinelli explained, “These were the members making these comments. Not us bringing it up. And who more? These are the people who functionally run day to day their parties and have to do keep the lights on and keep the team together in their state,” noting that the delegates “wrestle with coalition challenges in here all the time here and we had these kinds of problems thrown at them. They don’t really appreciate it.”
The city of Cleveland secured an almost $50 million grant from the federal government to enact “Special Security” at the Republican Convention this summer.
The grant is intended to pay for “law enforcement expenditures and related security costs, including necessary personnel and equipment costs, needed to implement the security plan for the convention.”