Trump went on the offensive over Cruz after polls showed Cruz gaining on The Donald nationally, even overtaking him in Iowa, by branding him a “maniac”. “I do like Ted Cruz – but not a lot of evangelicals come out of Cuba, in all fairness”, Trump said.
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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.
Sparring began with Trump’s “Fox News Sunday” appearance, when he referred to Cruz as “a little bit of a maniac”.
The Des Moines Register/Bloomberg Politics poll, out late on Saturday, shows the conservative Cruz with 31 percent support, 10 points ahead of bombastic billionaire Donald Trump, who has 21 percent.
And in the Granite State, there’s so far been no sign of a singular challenger to Trump’s dominance there as Marco Rubio, Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, and John Kasich have divided a Republican vote that’s traditionally gone to a more establishment-friendly candidate that counters the results in Iowa.
Both men have claimed to admire each other, with Trump previously saying he is a fan of Cruz, and Cruz giving Trump credit for bringing important issues to the race. “He’ll never get anything done”. Now, Ted Cruz is leading the Republicans in Iowa.
Mr Rubio, who has seen a lift in his own poll standings in recent weeks, criticised his Senate colleague on defence spending, saying Mr Cruz talked about carpet-bombing Islamic State while voting to cut the military budget.
“How do you tell the Bahraini pilots that fly, the Saudi pilots that fly and the Emirati pilots ‘You’re good enough to fight against ISIL, but you’re not good enough to come to the United States?’ Huge mistake”, Burr said. When they chop off heads, and when they treat people the way – we’re like Medieval times.
Cruz’s rise and Carson’s fall aren’t happenstance, the poll found: Among “very conservative” voters, Carson has dropped 23% while Cruz has risen 23% since late October. “I don’t like what he said”. “And, you know, if that is the case, then, you know, I’m out of here”.
“But without the ban, you’re not going to make the point”. “Can’t do it when I get elected”. “But we have got to stop the problem”, he said in response to a question.
Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump greet each other during a rally in Washington in September.
In his CNN interview, Trump told Tapper he is a much stronger candidate for president than Cruz because he is simply more capable and is more of a people person than the senator from Texas.
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Citing Tashfeen Malik, the woman who with her husband Syed Rizwan Farook killed 14 people during a shooting rampage at a San Bernardino developmental center this month, Trump said the USA needs to “get its hands around the problem” of radical followers of the religion and the threat they create.
