The initial scuffles between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz have turned into a full-on fight as the top two GOP candidates continued trading blows on the campaign trail Saturday.
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Cruz did not mention Trump during his remarks to the South Carolina Tea Party convention, but wasn’t so reticent with reporters, telling them that the NY billionaire is attacking him because he now leads polls in Iowa, which opens the Republican nomination process on February 1. “Excuse me. Say whatever you want, he didn’t report his bank loans, he got bank loans from Goldman Sachs, he got bank loans from Citibank, and then he acts like Robin Hood”, Trump said as the boos grew louder and some of his allies began yelling his name in response. “He’s being a great hypocrite”. “Disqualified. Disqualified. Hang it up”, etc., etc. It was even suggested that “New York Values” might be a reference to ethnics, you know, code for “Jews.” “These guys, we send them down there and they get down there and I don’t know what happens to them”.
He held a fundraiser Monday at the New Orleans home of Mary Matalin, a Bush family loyalist and close adviser to former vice president Richard B. Cheney, and drew support there from some traditional party players.
Cruz said at the debate, “Listen, there are many, many wonderful, wonderful working men and women in the state of NY”.
“You know cities are cities, but they’re basically people, their brick and mortar and they’re people and he spoke very disparagingly about the people of New York”, Trump told the crowd. And having come from the Midwest myself, I can vouch for the idea that conservative Midwesterners probably think “New York values” are indeed quite different from their own. “You’re not. … It’s not as simple as some of the people make it sound”.
“It is now looking on the Republican side like a battle for third, with Donald Trump and Ted Cruz now locked in a huge battle for first place”, ABC News political director Rick Klein said. “They’re in a tier off to themselves, and I think our nominee is going to be Cruz or Trump”. Ted Cruz. Trump used the last debate to go after Cruz and question whether he can legally serve as president because he was born in Canada. “They’re getting essentially 22 people and $150 billion. Mmm, doesn’t sound too good, but we’ll have to see because I just heard about this an hour ago”.
Among Trump’s Twitter comments Saturday: “When will @TedCruz give all the NY based campaign contributions back to the special interests that control him“. “Very bad things are happening”.
Support for the three leading GOP candidates was virtually unchanged since last week’s survey, with Trump, at 38 percent of support, comfortably beating out Sen. Most experts say he is, pointing out past candidates who’ve sought primary presidential nominations in spite of a foreign birth to American parents.
Tellingly, Trump didn’t stick to the information available in recent media reports. We live in challenging times, and we need thoughtful leadership.
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Peggie White, 63, from Columbia, and Carolyn Caughman, 65, from Elgin, both taking a break on a balcony overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, said they like Trump because he’s not afraid to speak his mind on issues like excessive government, opposition to Syrian refugees, and a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
