Cruz declined to directly engage in the back-and-forth – “I like Donald Trump”, he told supporters – but the barbed speeches and statements showed the higher stakes as both campaigns sprint to the finish line.
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“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters”, Trump said at a campaign rally here.
Trump later went on to bash his fellow Republican 2016 candidates, calling the supporters of contenders like Ted Cruz “soft”. The ad states Trump worked with government officials in Atlantic City, N.J., to use eminent domain to bulldoze the home of an elderly woman to make room for a limousine parking lot. Alex Conant, speaking for Marco Rubio’s campaign, was quick to note, however, that Grassley will introduce Rubio at an Iowa rally in a week. Ted Cruz, who is in a tight race for the country’s leadoff nominating contest here in nine days. Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican and conservative firebrand, and Iowa social conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats encouraged local Republicans to unite behind Cruz.
Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Jeff Kaufmann stood with Trump in front of national TV cameras one day after U.S. Sen.
Top on his list was Internet broadcaster and former Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck, who wrote that ‘Trump’s potential primary victory would provide Hillary Clinton with the easiest imaginable path to the White House’.
Cruz himself only recently backed deportations, having long tried to keep the door open to a path for legal status until a few months ago. It says the results are accurate to within 1.4% 19 times out of 20.
The endorsement comes in the wake of Sarah Palin, another conservative heavyweight, endorsing Donald Trump earlier this week.
“I think the establishment actually is against me, but really coming on line because they see me as opposed to Cruz who is a nasty guy who can’t get along with anybody”, Trump said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.
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RANDALL HILL/REUTERS Texas Senator and U.S. Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has slipped in polls ahead of the Iowa cacuses.
