Why Cruz, and the G.O.P., Lost to Trump

The day that ended with Donald Trump winning the Indiana primary and, effectively, the Republican Presidential nomination, and with Ted Cruz suspending his campaign, began with Trump calling in to “Fox and Friends” and talking about the Kennedy assassination. The Fox hosts played a video in which Cruz’s father, Rafael, who is a preacher, said, “I exhort every member of the body of Christ to vote according to the word of God,” by which he meant voting for Ted Cruz. Rafael added that “the alternative could be the destruction of America.” Trump said that he thought it was a disgrace that the elder Cruz was allowed to speak that way—“so many people are angry about it”—given that he had seen a picture of him with the man who killed President John F. Kennedy. The picture in question ran in the National Enquirer, and the tabloid’s identification of Rafael Cruz is utterly uncorroborated, a point that Fox’s Brian Kilmeade feebly tried to make as Trump continued speaking. “What was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death, before the shooting?” Trump said. “It’s horrible!”