One might be forgiven for forgetting that there are 12 Republicans still in the White House race – for now, it’s a two-man show. But with some Republican leaders in open revolt against Cruz as he has surged in Iowa, Trump is pivoting to an argument that he is more electable than Cruz – suggesting that Cruz’s abrasive personality makes him unfit for the presidency.
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Beck’s endorsement is the highest-profile one yet for Cruz, coming nine days before Iowans cast the nation’s first votes in the presidential nominating process.
On the Republican side, Donald Trump remains atop the field holding a commanding lead. The margin of error is six percentage points.
The early January meeting at the Capitol Hill Club, created to be an update on strategy and expectations, also veered into a gripe session about Cruz, according to people in attendance.
Beck announced his endorsement at the start of Cruz’s final trip to Iowa before the February 1 caucuses. They refused to attack each other until just recently.
“Ted has a lot of problems”. They say I have the most loyal people.
Ted Cruz claimed Saturday that Donald Trump still supports “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants, arguing that Trump’s planned deportations were merely an end-around to grant citizenship to those in the US who are here illegally.
“We need a new George Washington”, he said in a press release.
“Glenn’s a loser”, he said.
Trump, a supporter of the Second Amendment, has slammed U.S. president Barack Obama for his use of executive orders to expand background checks on people who buy guns. “But I do think substance matters”.
US Republican front-runner Donald Trump expressed confidence on Saturday that he could push back attempts by his rivals to knock him off his top perch, saying he could stand in New York’s Fifth Avenue “and shoot people and I wouldn’t lose voters”. The senator accuses the tycoon of being an opportunist with no real attachment to conservative values. On the other hand, regarding attacks on Democratic candidates, Cruz scored 13%, Rubio scored 10%, and Trump scored 0%.
“It would be hard for a Republican in Iowa to win without at least some support from them”, Dennis Goldford, a professor of political science at Drake University in Des Moines, told AFP.
Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio has been doubling down on the anti-gay rhetoric while on the campaign trail.
Traditional Republican candidates like Jeb Bush, whose father and brother have both served as president, have fallen by the wayside in the polls. The conservative magazine’s latest issue features a compilation of essays from prominent conservative thinkers denouncing the billionaire businessman. (And there was Hillary Clinton’s invite to his wedding.) Moreover, Ronald Reagan’s son, Michael, says the brash New Yorker has frequently broken Reagan’s “11th commandment” against speaking ill of other Republicans.
The conservative establishment, however, shows no sign of rallying around Trump. “But he is not deserving of conservative support in the caucuses and primaries”. Rubio had sought to present himself as a counterweight – a sunny optimist whose age, 44, and Cuban-American background represented the future of the Republican party.
Some party stalwarts however have welcomed Trump.
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Dismissing Cruz’s recent line of attack that he has accepted the embrace of the establishment — “Give me a break”, he scoffed — Trump highlighted the comments earlier this week by former Kansas Sen. Veteran senator Bob Dole, the party’s presidential candidate in 1996, has the same opinion.
