Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a…
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“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters”, Trump told the crowd.
Rival presidential contenders have been taking shots at Trump, who sits atop the polls in Iowa, along with Ted Cruz. On the Democratic side, the question is how the expected front-runner Hillary Clinton will fare against an insurgent campaign from self-declared democratic socialist Bernie Sanders. A day earlier, Friday, Trump released his first negative television advertisement, featuring a stammering Cruz struggling to articulate whether an amendment he had introduced in 2013 would have left open a path to legal status for the undocumented – the same charge that Rubio leveled at Cruz for much of the fall. I think I’m going to do great with the Asians, ‘ he said. In Iowa, about 20 percent of likely Republican caucus-goers in Iowa said they would refuse to vote for Trump over a Democrat in the general election, compared to 11 percent who said the same about Cruz. It is the 40th poll in a row that shows Trump on top in New Hampshire, and one of several recent polls that have shown him with the support of twice as many Republicans as the number 2 candidate.
University of Texas professor Daron Shaw, who oversees the Texas Lyceum Poll, said that Trump’s support in Texas stems in large part from the perception that the billionaire dealmaker and negotiator would be a strong leader who wouldn’t let America’s adversaries “run over us”.
Nine days from the first nominating contest in Iowa, however, it was Republican rival Marco Rubio who won the endorsement on Saturday from the Des Moines Register, the state’s biggest and most influential newspaper. Ted Cruz has recently caught up in the polls in Iowa, where they’re now neck-and-neck in a battle for first place.
Beck also said that while he could understand the anger galvanizing primary voters in 2016, Trump’s remark was a concerning sentiment and the role of the Constitution is to “temper” the mood of the nation.
She tied herself to President Barack Obama throughout the speech, saying that becoming secretary of state was “one of the best decisions I made, ever”, adding that she prayed about whether to accept Obama’s offer.
Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley was an introductory speaker at Trump’s Pella event.
“The way I read what he said is, if I didn’t get the nomination, he might consider it”, Clinton said of Bloomberg.
Trump has not shied away from discussing issues about race popular with black Americans.
MARTIN: So there’s word today that former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, also a very wealthy man, is thinking about putting some of his wealth into a presidential bid. “A lot of people are making a lot of money”, Trump said.
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Speaking to supporters in a crowded high school gym, Trump focused the brunt of his attacks on former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, whose campaign launched attack ads against Trump, and on Texas Sen. With the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary less than three weeks away, Trump appears to be postitioned well to walk out a victor.
