Give the speech of his life tonight, we talk to the woman who will introduce him and ask can he get things back on track today, thursday, july 21st, 2016. Announcer from nbc news, this is a special edition of today. At the Republican National convention with matt lauer and Savannah Guthrie live from cleveland. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to today. Its thursday morning. Were here at the Republican Convention here in cleveland and who was it that said conventions are boring, scripted affairs, nothing happens. Take the word boring off of the list. This thing is not boring at all. Its the fourth and final day of the convention and should be a really big one for donald trump. This morning it is that snub, his primary rival ted cruz, delivering a snub that everyone is talking about. It was quite a moment on the floor. I was there. Cruz was booed and then donald trump sweeps in and steals the moment. By the way, well talk to ivanka trump later on about what she thinks about her speech tonight and the whole melania speech controversy. Big night for her. You mentioned earlier, ted cruz had the room for the bulk of that speech until that moment where he did not endorse. The crowd didnt like that one bit. We have a lot to get to. Lets start with nbc National CorrespondentPeter Alexander. Hey, peter, good morning to you. They say they have never seen a convention quite like this. So much for party unity within the last few minutes ted cruz for the first time addressed those comments about donald trump, the billionaire and reality tv star just hours away from facing the biggest audience of his life. Ahead of Donald Trumps night, an even billed as the republican tickets debut. I accept your nomination to run and serve as Vice President of the United States of america. Reporter trump joining indiana governor mike pence on stage, the new running mate, trading handshake for an air kiss before trump walked off. We will make America Great again. Reporter overshadowing their triumphant moment, a cruz missile. I want to congratulate donald trump on winning the nomination last night. Announcer after a rousing and powerful speech, ted cruz refusing to endorse his partys nominee. Dont stay home in november. Stand and speak and vote your conscience. Reporter the Convention Floor erupting in a chorus of loud boos. The trump family watching from the vip box in silence. I appreciate the enthusiasm of the new york delegation. Reporter as cruz was jeered off stage, his wife was escorted off the floor out of concerns for her safety. Punctuating the drama, trump heard his son eric stepping on the end of cruzs speech. Wow. Wow. Eric trump capturing in few words what most were thinking before showering his father in praise. You are my hero. You are my best friend. You are the next president of the United States. Reporter this morning speaking to the texas delegation, cruz defended his remarks, saying he had given the Trump Campaign plenty of heads up and didnt rule out an endorsement in the future. What i dont intend to do is go out and i dont intend to criticize donald. I intend, like a voter, like all of us just to listen and make the best judgment i can. Reporter as for pence the mild mannered good western displaying warmth and self deprecating humor. Know me, which is most of you. Reporter taking on trumps democratic opponent. Hillary clinton wants a new title and i would too if i was the secretary of the status quo. When donald trump becomes president of the United States of america, the change will be huge. Reporter one example trump talking to the New York Times this morning saying as president he wouldnt automatically come to the defense of nato allies as required by the alliances charter. If russia attacked its baltic neighbors, trump says he would decide whether to come to their aid only after reviewing whether those countries have fulfilled their obligations to us. The Clinton Campaign blasting those comments overnight, saying the president is supposed to be the leader of the free world. Donald trump apparently doesnt even believe in the free world. Matt and savannah, a big night ahead. Well see you there. Peter alexander on the floor at the q. Thank you. Lets get more on how ted cruzs nonendorsement is playing with delegates, donors and donald trump himself. Nbc Hallie Jackson has that pa of the story. Hi, good morning. Good morning to you, matt. We spent most of ted cruzs speech back in the texas section here where the delegates were on their feet the entire time. But when ted cruz said those words, vote your conscience, many seemed stunned. The real furry coming from the new york delegation, anger and shock and another episode of chaos here in cleveland. Donald trumps review now in. That was a remarkable moment. What did you think . I loved it. Trying to brush off ted cruzs refusal to endorse him, trump tweeting, wow, ted cruz got booed off the stage. Didnt honor the pledge. I saw his speech two hours early but let him speak any way. No big deal. Some Trump Supporters think oerz. To me ted cruz showed america what he really. He is a fraud. He is a liar. He is self centered and disqualified himself for ever being considered for president of the United States. I just think it was an awful performance by someone who showed himself tonight to not be a man of his word. Reporter cruz, returning to his Hotel Overnight to hug and cheers some texas delegates supportive of his on stage stance. This isnt my party. We dont do this. We might disagree. We can talk it out. But we dont do this to each other. We certainly do not do it to a u. S. Senators wife. The trump batting down questions about party unity. Everyone booing him off stage because i think everyone else in here has the sense to realize the number one goal is to make sure we beat Hillary Clinton. Reporter cruz and trumps relationship over the last year a roller coaster ride. The texas senator embracing trump in the early part of the primary, memorably tweeting he is terrific, dealwithit. Things changed as trump amped it. We call him lying ted. Reporter coming to a head after trump retweeted a photo of his wife. Reporter will you support him as the nominee . Im going to beat him. He didnt beat trump in indiana. The cruz campaigns final blow. We gave it everything weve got. But the voters chose another path. Reporter coming just hours after trump insinuated cruzs father played a part in fact assassination of john f. Kennedy. His mess ang here on stage aimed not just at the delegates here but at conservative grass roots republicans around the country, cruz may face fallouts from some big money republicans which reports this morning he may have been denied entry to one of the donor suites here in the arena. Matt, savannah. Thank you very much. Paul manafort is the chairman of the Trump Campaign. Paul, good morning to you. Good morning. Anything happen last night . Quiet evening in the trump world. Peter king said he is a liar, Chris Christie said he was self center. Do you agree with all of the above . Look, donald trump wanted to demonstrate to both his opponents in the primaries and Republican Party and to the American People that he views the primary process as over. He invited his opponent to speak at this convention. His invitation had no conditions to it. He wasnt asking for endorsements. Most people understood what it meant. So people like Governor Walker and marco rubio and others who spoke you know, said in various capacities plan to support the republican ticket. Ted cruz took a different path. Two schools of thought. One school says he should have never let this happen, knowing that he was going to use the words vote your conscience. Theres no reason to give that spot to him on a wednesday night. The other school is you guys are crazy like foxes and you knew when he said those words that would be the reaction on the floor and it would be one of the more unifying moments of the convention so far. Well, im not sure, but as far as im concerned the party is unified. Last night despite what senator cruz did the party came together because they see that donald trump is making an effort. You saw paul ryan with a great introduction of Vice President to be pence. You saw tonight you will see a fantastic speech by trump. You said in the last 24 hours you thought ted cruz would be part of this campaign. Moving forward i would assume this morning you will retract those words . Its up to ted cruz not up to me. You would let him come back and be part of the campaign . Our position is we want to embrace all republicans who are prepared to work and support trump pence ticket. Even after he betrayed that goodwill you just talked about . I think cruz used very bad judgment. He didnt meet them. Let me just go back to something we talked to you about on monday morning or Tuesday Morning excuse me the morning after Melania Trumps speech where it was widely believed she had plagiarized portions of that speech. You came on to other shows and this show and said, no, there nofs plagiarizing, there was no cribbing. You even went as far as to blame Hillary Clinton. We now know in the last 24 hours it was a mistake on the part of the speech writer. That person has taken blame for it. When you said when Hillary Clinton is threatened by a female, the first thing she does is try to destroy that person. Would you offer secretary clinton an apology for blaming her . Look, first of all, you have to put the situation in context. It wasnt the speech writer. This is something part of the Trump Campaign. I didnt even know she was involved in the process. When i spoke to Melania Trump, she said that she believes and still does that she did not put those words in there. She did not know that they were words from Michelle Obama her specific words. Go ahead. Prior to that statement said the exact opposite and trump knew two days ago that in fact melania had sent this speech. The question is really not about whether she did or she didnt its really a matter of candor and whether you knew that that came from Michelle Obamas speech. I did not know. I was told by mrs. Trump and believe mrs. Trump she personally put those words in that speech. As far as by mrs. Mciver is concerned, i didnt know her existence. I asked the speech writers they said no. I asked mrs. Trump, she said no. As far as i was concerned there was that was my position. Huge tonight for your candidate. What is he going to say . What do you want him to say . He can speak to the American People. He understands the magnitude of his speech. He understands this is his moment to speak to 40 or 50 Million People and assess his vision of the country. During the course of the campaign, hes distinguished himself from republicans as far as getting the nomination, but now he will be distinguishing himself and talking about change versus the establishment and he is the change agent. Paul manafort, thanks for your time this morning. Appreciate it. Given last nights chaos, tonights theme is well timed. Its called make america one again. The gop saying speakers will tackle ways to turn challenges into opportunities and focus on what units us not what divides us. Again the highlight of the evening, donald trump accepting the Republican Partys nomination for president. As we mentioned, hell be introduced by his daughter ivanka. We speak to her later. Lets bring in Nicole Wallace and mike murphy. Good morning to both youve. What happened last night . Well, something weve never seen before. Its one thing to be not endorse trump but to get on the podium before the Vice President ial nominee, pull a lightning bolt out of your pocket and throw it to trumps eyes. Cruz blew himself up. Will cruz be able to say purity on ideology and purity on trump. Very risky, big move. Does it hurt trump . It does not help. Well see how trump does tonight. Thats what counts. Nicole, you take a different view, somehow, some way this is a party more united more than ever now . I think that cruz accomplish what had the Trump Campaign has not been able to do so far, he united more republicans behind trump. What he did was the equivalent of going into someones living room, breaking all the furniture and stealing the food out of the fridge before you run out. It was bad manners and he squandered so much goodwill. We were in the room. That room was behind ted cruz until he got to that moment when he just put the knife right in ted cruzs front. I want to talk im sorry Donald Trumps front. I want to talk about Donald Trumps speech in a second, but can we just spend one second on staging again. We talked about the staging of the vp announcement a couple of days ago. The moment last night there seemed to be a lack of coordination as mike pence was ready to leave the stage and donald trump came up. Was there an attempt to embrace but then they left each other . Whats going on with this . Let me for the second time this morning defend the Trump Campaign. He won because he is an outsider and doesnt know what youre supposed to do is grab your running mates hand and waive it above his head. He won because he doesnt have any idea what youre supposed to do and people that like him still like him because he hasnt built a Campaign Around him. This is what it looks like when you run a pirate ship instead of a normal campaign. On the other hand, if theres anything trump really knows how to do is create an image, create a moment. We saw the entrance. What do you think about that . The rule book of the Trump Campaign is to tear up the rule book. The problem is a lot of rules are there because they work and the narrative of this convention has been train wreck so the pressure on trump tonight to really perform is immense. In an interview with the New York Times when asked what he wants people to take away from this convention, donald trump said and im quoting the fact that im very well liked yeah. Now, generally speaking, isnt it true that a candidate wants people to take away that i have the vision, i have the policies to take this country forward for the next four or eight years. What do you make of that comment . Well, that was an extraordinary interview. Im sure well talk about it more in the days to come. He also laid out some really outside the mainstream ideas on foreign policy. Im told the candidate will not double down on any of the ideas tonight. Tonight it will be about the themes that got him here. But this idea of being liked is what animates his entire candidacy. Thats why we heard the first ten months of his campaign, he would start by reading out all thele pos, our polls and others. So the problem with the analysis and the problem with that strategy is you need to leave being liked by more people than like you when you got here. Im not sure yet if he accomplished that. The me, me, me school of president ial campaigning has got to end or he will not get out of where he is at now. You cant have a casual commitment to the Nato Security Alliance eventually donald trump has to Say Something serious. The whole fly by the seat of the pants thing is showing up in policies now. That can be deadly. Mike, thank you very much. Nicole, thank you very much. Thank you. Got a lot more from cleveland just ahead, including savannahs conversation with ivanka trump who will introduce her dad tonight. Reminder, you can catch complete coverage of the rnc all day on msnbc and get mr. Trumps speech live in primetime 10 00 p. M. Eastern, 7 00 p. M. Pacific on nbc. Another big story this morning, Southwest Airlines is waiving ticket change fees for tens of thousands of passengers today after a major computer failure forced the airline to cancel or delay hundreds of flights and the trouble may not be over just yet. Lets get right to nbcs tom costello who covers aviation for us. Good morning, tom. Good morning. This is a real mess. Southwest says it was forced to cancel 700 flights yesterday, 20 of its flights, even more delayed. Thats a huge number. This morning the ceo says the Computer Systems were restored at 2 00 a. M. Theyre hoping for a more normal schedule today but it could be a very slow recovery. It all started mid afternoon with the companys website and Computer Systems crashed. The backup failed. Then the restoration attempts failed. The problems only grew worse through the day. At one point, the airline held all flights still on the ground as it tried to work through the issues. Ticket agents were writing out tickets by hand. The lines inside the terminals stretching for hours with tens of thousands of passengers delayed or missing their flights. This morning flight aware shows just under 200 flights cancelled before 7 00 a. M. East coast time today. The airline says its still in a recovery mode. Its urging customers to check the status of your flights online before arriving at the airports but it could be another rough day as it tries to accommodate everybody who missed a flight yesterday. Back to you, guys. Tom costello in washington. Thank you. Lets talk about t