In addition to criticizing Trump, Beck heaped praise upon a Cruz presidency, going as far as comparing his to George Washington. 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. Rep. Steve King, an Iowa Republican and conservative firebrand, and Iowa social conservative leader Bob Vander Plaats encouraged local Republicans to unite behind Cruz.
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He bashed Beck as a “loser” and “sad sack” and said former Alaska governor Sarah Palin’s endorsement, secured for Trump a few days earlier, was more important than if Beck had backed him.
Beck is among almost two dozen conservative thinkers who penned anti-Trump essays for National Review magazine – a hit Trump to referred to repeatedly at the rally.
Trump on Saturday also raised the subject of Cruz’s previously undisclosed loans he received from Goldman Sachs and Citibank to finance his political campaign that propelled him to the Senate.
With obvious exaggeration, he charged that one Republican candidate, “for over 60 years of his life”, supported so-called partial-birth abortion and a “Bernie Sanders-style socialized medicine for all”.
“That is why I am endorsing Senator Ted Cruz as the next President of the United States of America.”, he said.
“Glenn has been a relentless fighter for liberty, for limited government, and for restoring the country we all love so much”.
“I can actually sit at a table with a man who says, ‘Yes, I’m a socialist, and yes, I don’t like what we are doing, we should be more like Denmark, ‘ ” he added. “I have no intention of responding in kind”.
Although he says he has been asked “many times”, Beck has “never trusted anyone enough – until now”.
The veteran Iowa senator went on to attack what he saw as the unconstitutional actions of Barack Obama and told attendees they needed the same energy they showed Trump “to win back the White House in November”.
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Trump and Cruz, Trump’s chief obstacle to a victory in Iowa, held competing rallies across the state while in New Hampshire, other candidates battled for votes in that state’s February 9 first-in-the-nation primary for the November 8 election.
