Sen. Ted Cruz was "circling the runway" with his Wednesday night speech to the Republican National Convention, but then he "absolutely crashed it" by not endorsing Donald Trump as the GOP presidential nominee, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Thursday.
"He dishonored himself and the convention," Huckabee told Fox News' "Outnumbered" program. "I am absolutely disgusted with what he did last night."
Huckabee said Cruz should never have agreed to take the stage if he was not going to honor his pledge to support the eventual Republican nominee.
Cruz's speech had been highly anticipated, but aside from congratulating Trump for winning the nomination, the Texas senator and primary rival did not endorse the nominee, drawing boos from the Cleveland crowd.
Thursday morning,
he doubled down on his statements that he wanted to vote his conscience based on who would more closely meet conservative values. However, he then said hat he would not be a "servile puppy dog" by blindly endorsing someone like Trump who had insulted his family.
Huckabee also did not show any sympathy for Cruz' complaints that Trump mistreated his wife, Heidi,through retweeting a message that made fun of her looks and his father, after Trump repeated an allegation that he was involved with President John F. Kennedy's assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald.
"This is a big boy game," Huckabee commented. "You get into the process, you will get hurt, you will see your own blood. I tell people all the time if you can't stand the sight of your own blood don't run for anything."
Huckabee also said it was a mistake for the Trump campaign to allow Cruz to speak, when it knew he would not offer his support.