Presented by ExxonMobil.

Good morning, everyone. I'm Playbook co-author, Ryan Liza. It's Wednesday, July 17th,

and we're coming to you after day two just wrapped at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.

Tonight was runner-up night, and we heard from Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.

Back at the CNN Politico Grill, my colleague Jonathan Martin and I spotted the perfect

person to discuss runner-ups. The 2016 runner-up to Donald Trump, Senator Ted Cruz. So Jay Martin

and I grabbed Cruz and found a table in the corner and recorded this conversation

during a lively party at the CNN Politico Grill. So everyone is talking about unity here.

Pierce that BS storyline and tell us about the tensions underneath the surface of this convention.

So it actually isn't BS this time.

Wait, what year was it BS?

Listen, this is a convention where Republicans are entirely united behind Donald Trump

to win in November for Republicans to take the Senate, Republicans take the House,

and the Democrat convention that's getting ready to start is going to be complete chaos and civil war. Frankly, we're used to it being the other way around.

And it's kind of nice seeing the shoe on the other foot.

So of us personally, exactly, right? I remember when you ran for president in 2016, Senator,

you had a line, you said about foreign policy, you said that you were

kind of one part Rand Paul, one part John McCain, you kind of had a foot in both camps.

You flash forward now eight years later, those wars are still raging.

They are.

But fair to say that by putting Vance on the ticket, it strikes a blow for the non-interventionist winning the party, right? I mean, it's... Sure, but look, at the end of the day, when Donald Trump is re-elected, Trump will be the commander-in-chief. Fair enough. And when he was president in his first term, I worked hand-in-handed with him every day, and I've got to say on foreign policy, I spoke to him every week and sometimes every day, and I agree almost entirely with this foreign policy record.

I often describe my views on foreign policy as a non-interventionist hawk.

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