With Trump leading the pack and competitive in Iowa, a Carson victory in that state would have relegated Cruz to third place or worse, and damaged any ability to build on Iowa elsewhere. This strategy assumed that a Trump loss in Iowa would damage him badly elsewhere, with the aura of momentum, victory, and poll leads smashed.
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He urged Cruz to go get a judge’s opinion certifying his right to run, lest he later become the nominee and find his candidacy tangled up in court: “There’s a big question mark over the head”. Did Cruz end it?
All of it left some Republicans anxious that time to stop Trump, or Cruz from seizing the inside track on the nomination was evaporating and that the establishment candidates were doing little to slow either man’s momentum. Donald Trump seemed to forget he proposed a massive tax on Chinese goods.
Ted Cruz indeed has a problem.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Chuck Todd, NBC’s political director and moderator of Meet the Press, is here. He built up a lead there, as confirmed by almost every survey taken in late December and early January.
CHUCK TODD: That’s what we all do now.
Now, Trump is at 36%, while Cruz is at 30% and Rubio is at 23%.
And – and I would note indeed, the reason I said that is I was asked – my friend Donald has taken to it as (ph) advance playing Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA”, and I was asked what I thought of that. And Jeb Bush and Christie tried to get involved, but you could really feel the top tier there. Trump looked befuddled at that moment.
Cruz applauded Trump’s mention of the city’s response to 9/11 on Thursday, but was steadfast in his refusal to back down over his criticism of the city and state’s values.
“The people in NY fought and fought and fought, and we saw more death, and even the smell of death”. I don’t think you could say he won, but I might argue that because he was touched the least that he’s overall gonna gain the most.
TODD: Well, it did at first. Cruz’s wife, Heidi, worked for the bank at the time, and he has said they used their own retirement accounts to pay for the campaign.
Not backing down, like a matador taunting the bull with his cape, Cruz responded to raucous applause from the crowd.
Senator Ted Cruz came under the most scrutiny as he was questioned about his eligibility for the office, a loan that was used to fund a prior senate campaign and his remarks on Donald Trump having “New York values”. And you said it’s something you don’t know about, now he doesn’t know that he was a Canadian citizen?
But when the new poll results in Iowa came out from the Des Moines Registrar after the deadline, Paul was shown in fifth place.
Under that theory, not only would I be disqualified, Marco Rubio would be disqualified, Bobby Jindal would be disqualified and, interestingly enough, Donald J. Trump would be disqualified.
GUTHRIE:…when given the opportunity to counterpunch on Nikki Haley.
“This 229 year question has never been pled, presented to, or finally decided by or resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court or by any other U.S. Court of Appeals for the now twelve Circuits that had and have the interim appellate jurisdiction to decide it. Only the U.S. Supreme Court can finally decide, determine judicially, and settle this issue now”.
TODD: No, it’s still out there because we now have reports that somebody has actually filed the first lawsuit.
The calendar then looks built just for Cruz, with his strong appeal to evangelical voters. This has rattled him.
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“Well, listen, I’ve spent my entire life defending the Constitution before the U.S. Supreme Court”.
