Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush’s campaign is releasing a new TV ad spotlighting his latest attack strategy against front-runner Donald Trump for mocking a reporter with a disability.
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In an interview with a MA radio station, Cruz slammed Trump for embodying “New York values”, a dig at the businessman’s past allegiance with Democrats.
The event, the first debate of 2016, will begin at 8 p.m. CST with a pre-debate at 5 p.m. The event is taking place in Charleston, where a mass shooter killed nine people at a black church six months ago. Like previous Republican debates, this one is split into two tiers.
Marco Rubio has held his own in past debates and he’s considered the establishment favorite, though he hasn’t seen a big jump in polling. In a likely preview of his debate tactics, Bush sharply criticized Trump on Wednesday for holding positions on taxes, guns and health care that he says are out of step with conservatives.
The bad: In a head-to-head match-up with Cruz, Cruz actually wins, 51% to Trump’s 43%, a figure that shows why Trump has increasingly attacked Cruz, focusing on his Canadian birth and questioning his eligibility to run for president. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, campaigns at Penny’s Diner in Missouri Valley, Iowa. The misstep could leave Cruz fighting a multi-front war tonight, with the loan – as well as the citizenship issue – likely to become a talking point for the moderators and the candidates.
First reported by Politico, the champion college debater has crafted a more aggressive and assertive debate style gaining him talking time in recent debates, even when asked fewer questions than the competition.
And it’s not clear how many of Cruz’s fellow Republican are willing to defend him. Ted Cruz, Florida Sen. He’s had several super PAC ads trashing the candidate go to air in Iowa and New Hampshire targeting everything from the Senator’s poor attendance record at Senate meetings to his choice in footwear.
Heading into the debate, RealClearPolitics shows Trump still enjoying a comfortable lead with a 35-percent average in three polls. Although many legal experts believe Cruz’s American mother means he meets the US Constitution’s “natural-born” citizen requirement for presidents, Trump has suggested daily that Cruz could be ineligible for the Oval Office.
In the general election, where the vast majority of voters can’t be swayed, a field campaign is considered to be a raging success if it moves the needle by one or two percentage points.
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The so-called “bromance” long over, Trump and Cruz are competing fiercely for conservative voters in Iowa. Also on the main stage will be New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who are battling Rubio and Bush for the establishment vote, as well as retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, whose standing in the race has steadily fallen. Two in five Trump supporters say the same thing.
