Marco Rubio adamantly avoided attacking Donald Trump, Wednesday, instead turning a reporter’s question about the business moguls complaints of a fixed election in Iowa into an attack on Ted Cruz.
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It’s a marked change in tone for second-place Trump, who until now said he was proud of his results considering it’s his first political campaign.
Ted Cruz of Texas in Monday’s Iowa caucuses – a loss Trump asserts was due to “fraud” on Cruz’s part – the real estate tycoon has lost his command of the GOP race, according to the first national poll conducted entirely after the caucuses shows. “Most will go to Cruz, I hope”.
Trump has a strong lead going into New Hampshire, the second state to vote on presidential candidates February 9. None of the remaining Republican candidates received more than 5% of the vote. Despite a near tie in Iowa, Clinton remains well ahead in polls in the big states.
The tough response came after Trump unleased a hail of tweets accusing the Texas Republican senator of cheating in the Iowa caucuses – calling for either a new election to be held or the results to be nullified.
The new term was coined by Cruz after the former frontrunner took to Twitter to rant about his competitor allegedly committing fraud to secure his victory in the Iowa Caucas.
Trump also accused Cruz’s team of sending out a mailer created to look like an official electoral document to scare Iowa voters into turning out at the caucuses.
Mr Cruz’s camp is not taking the accusations too seriously.
Trump said he will spend more money to win New Hampshire and vowed that even if he falls short in there, he will keep campaigning for upcoming nominating contests in SC and Nevada.
“Reality hit the reality TV star in Iowa, so nobody is talking about him now, so he’s trying to regain some attention on Twitter”, Rick Tyler, Cruz’s campaign communications director, recently told CNN.
“There are Twitter addiction support groups, so he should seek out his local chapter”.
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Milford, New Hampshire, …
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He then pivoted to Cruz: “Obviously we’ve all seen the reports of the rumors they spread about Ben Carson, and you know those weren’t accurate and I thought it was unfair to Ben”. “I beat a lot of senators, a lot of governors. You couldn’t finish in the top 10.’ They said, ‘Don’t do it.’ I said, ‘I have to do it, ‘” Trump told the audience.
