Cruz slammed Marco Rubio and Trump during a dramatic news conference Wednesday that underscored the escalating tension among Republicans ahead of Saturday’s SC primary.
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Jeb Bush is swinging hard at fellow Republican presidential candidates Marco Rubio, Donald Trump and John Kasich Wednesday, dismissing them as ill-prepared as he fights for his political survival.
Also on Wednesday came news that Trump had fallen behind Cruz in a new national poll by NBC and the Wall Street Journal. And Rubio supporters have accused Cruz of being behind a fake Facebook post saying a top surrogate, Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-SC, was no longer backing him.
Haley, the state’s most popular GOP politician in polls, has made a decision to back the establishment candidate considered to be in best position to challenge Republican front-runners Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.
Trump confused Ben Carson, the neurosurgeon turned bumbling Republican presidential candidate, with President Obama.
He slammed Trump’s cease-and-desist letter aimed at an attack ad Cruz is running in SC. “Like as an example, I’m pro-life and he said, ‘He’s not pro-life.’ He can’t say that”. The two traded barbs in a debate last Saturday, and Cruz also seized on Trump’s comments that “Planned Parenthood does wonderful things”. “For that particular endeavor, I may well not use outside counsel – I may take the deposition myself”, Cruz said.
“The government should have known”, said Trump.
“I’ve been saying for a while now that Ted unfortunately has proved that he is willing to say or (do) anything to get elected”, Rubio said.
Rubio and Cruz both attacked President Obama’s record, and each attempted to demonstrate that they have the policy chops to tackle a number of issues.
“I’m leaning away from Cruz”, Kennemore said at a Trump rally in Greenville Monday night.
“Look, ethics matter”, Cruz told reporters.
A win that big would be “a check-all that he’s passed the conservative test in South Carolina”, Dawson said, adding, “At the end of the day, we’re going to find out whether Trump’s campaign was a Ponzi scheme or for real”.
The hope is that a solid outcome in SC could give a burst of momentum as the candidates head into a dozen primary contests on March 1, also known as the “SEC primary”. “Time will tell, Teddy”. “He (Trump) does not share our Christian values”.
Cruz shared some of his personality, even singing a few bars of “I Just Called to Say I Love You”, which he said he sings to his wife, Heidi, on the phone. In January, Trump was ahead of Rubio (by seven points) but behind Cruz (by eight points). I mean, we don’t have to go vote, I guess.
On Thursday, Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, a self-described “evangelical Catholic”, will campaign for Rubio at Columbia International University, a Christian institution in Columbia, S.C. “Cruz’s campaign of personal insult, deceptions, push polls and ads so misleading they can’t be aired”, said Rubio in a statement issued late in the afternoon.
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Rubio aides said the moves were aimed at bringing the campaign’s ad spending down to the level of its competitors in SC, not a sign of financial troubles or an indication that he was lowering expectations.
