While Trump’s candidacy has from the start faced a barrage of criticism from the political and consultant classes in Washington, several establishment Republicans have said lately that they would sooner back Trump than Cruz.
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Trump called Jeb Bush “not a smart person, ‘ making a ‘cuckoo” motion near his head and asking: ‘Who the hell wants to listen to this guy?’ In the last two weeks, according to the poll, Trump has gained 11 points and Cruz has lost 4 points.
No federal elected official has yet to endorse Trump although others, like Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, have appeared at Trump rallies. Chuck Grassley, the first time the senior Iowa senator has been present at a Trump rally.
In recent days Trump has taunted Beck, calling the conservative commentator a “wacko” and a “failing, crying lost soul”.
Glenn Beck, founder of The Blaze and host radio and TV programs, was in Iowa Saturday to endorse Cruz and Beck urged Iowans to reject Cruz’s primary competitor. Palin’s embrace of Trump and the state’s Republican establishment’s united opposition to Cruz has pushed Trump into a strong lead.
The billionaire also took aim at the ‘stupid National Review, ‘ a storied conservative magazine that marshalled 22 right-wing thinkers to attack him in a special issue released Friday night.
With obvious exaggeration, he charged that one Republican candidate, “for over 60 years of his life”, supported so-called partial-birth abortion and a “Bernie Sanders-style socialized medicine for all”. “I will let Donald speak for himself. They’re bringing drugs, they’re bringing crime, they’re rapists, and some, I assume, are good people”.
“If everything was fine, I’d vote for Ted Cruz”, Trump said. They said Rubio “represents his party’s best hope”, though they interestingly did not indicate whether their support was conditional on Rubio not trying to murder anyone. If they look down the road and they see Trump as president, they think they’ll be able to go to Trump and make deals and agree with the Democrats and come up with compromises and so forth. The Des Moines Register endorsed him Saturday as its choice in the Republican race, backing Hillary Clinton in the Democratic contest.
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Trump has repeatedly suggested that Cruz may not be eligible to serve as president because he was born in Canada, raising the question of whether Cruz meets the Constitutional requirement that the president be a natural-born citizen.
