CNN notes that the Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics was conducted between December 7 and 10, after Donald Trump’s controversial call for a ban on Muslims entering the United States from overseas.
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Despite Trump remaining at the top of the heap in Iowa, 30 percent of those polled by Fox News said they would never support Trump for president. Ted Cruz is a distant fourth place in that race and in a poll of South Carolina Republicans, Cruz stands at third place behind Trump, who is in first place, and Ben Carson.
Unlike the opposite Republicans in the 2016 White House race, the D.R. senator from Texas has embraced Trump and prevented public criticism of the favored candidate.
Iowa Republicans see Trump as most qualified to handle the economy and Cruz as best qualified on national security, the poll shows. The two have been cordial to each other, but Trump on Friday suggested Cruz’s opposition to continuing ethanol subsidies might be fueled by ties to oil companies in his home state of Texas.
Trump ripped Cruz for parroting even his own most controversial ideas.
“No, I don’t think he does, and I like him”, he said.
“I think they’re making a big mistake”.
“It’s Cruz-mentum. Ted Cruz is crushing it in Iowa”, Jennifer Jackson of the Des Moines Register said in a video on the paper’s website. Ted Cruz has consistently refused to criticize the real estate mogul, calling him a “good friend” and refusing to “blast” him. But Cruz’s rise extends to this poll as well – he’s at 24 percent and in second place, with Florida Sen.
The poll follows a Des Moines Register poll released this weekend giving Cruz a larger lead at 31 percent, followed by Trump at 21 and Carson at 13. Florida Senator Marco Rubio held onto his position in the double-digits of Iowa Republicans but only with 10 percent.
But Trump (being Trump) and Rubio (what early state does he win?) also have problems.
Cruz reportedly criticized Trump’s judgement at a private fundraiser on Wednesday. The New York Timesobtained an audio recording of Trump questioning whether Trump and Ben Carson have the judgement to be commander-in-chief.
“I was against going into Iraq”, Trump told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview that Sunday on “State of the Union”.
The trouble for Cruz is that as the Iowa Republican caucus goes, so usually does not go the GOP presidential nomination.
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz continue their friendly sparring over who has “better judgment” on the Sunday talk shows.
“I do not assume he has the proper temperament”.
Cruz, elected to the Senate in 2012, made waves his first year by spearheading the October 2013 government shutdown, which endeared him to conservative constituencies who liked that he was going to war against Obamacare, but didn’t make him many friends in Washington.
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He predicted he’ll outlast Cruz “because I’m more capable”.
