It’s a battle for the south, and the GOP presidential hopefuls are participating in a pair of town halls over two days. An ad from a pro-Cruz super political action committee was pulled by stations in SC.
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Meanwhile, Trump again called Cruz a liar making desperate moves to boost his campaign. Marco Rubio over alleged dirty tricks leading up to Saturday’s South Carolina GOP primary.
“The people of SC want a consistent conservative they can trust”, Cruz told reporters before his rally in Aiken. The former secretary of state polled at 55 percent, while Vermont Sen. “It is a remarkable contention that an ad that plays video of Donald Trump speaking on national television is somehow defamation”.
At the townhall, Cruz defended an ad he’s running that includes footage of Trump supporting abortion rights.
Trump called Cruz “the most dishonest guy I think I’ve ever met in politics”. Don’t miss this dispatch from MSNBC’s Benjy Sarlin, who quotes South Carolina Republicans who voted for the Bushes in past primaries but are more than open to Trump’s message. He ticked off a list of Democrats Trump had donated to in the past, including 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry. His sister is a cOurt of Appeals Judge appointed by Bill Clinton, his sister has an extreme left-wing record on the issue of abortion. Presidents appoint justices to the court, and the U.S. Senate confirms the appointments. A new CNN/ORC poll out Tuesday showed Trump on top at 38%, followed by Cruz at 22%, Rubio at 14% and Bush at 10%.
Cruz, the Texas senator, has been trying to beat back charges of dishonesty from Trump and Rubio for weeks.
Marco Rubio accused Texas Sen. “We can not trust Donald Trump with these serious decisions”, the ad says. But it also carries some risks, given his launching of the Iraq war in 2003, which ended up being unpopular with many Americans and which Republican front-runner Trump has seized on to criticize him. He shifted his defense to the next level during an afternoon news conference that highlighted Cruz’s extensive legal training. He started eviscerating Trump, playing the ad that upset Trump’s people.
“After calling me a liar, Donald repeated the position on the debate stage that I just observed was his position”, he added. “Now it just means that, like, you’ve have been around for 15 minutes.” he said with a rueful laugh. About one-third say they would enthusiastically back Cruz (32%, down from 37% in January), and 31% say so about Rubio, about the same as in January.
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“If you say something that isn’t true and you say it over and over and you know it’s not true, it must be a lie”, Rubio said.
