With one week to Iowa, Trump and Cruz deepen feud
As first primary race looms, frontrunners focus on each other, leaving contenders such as Rubio and Bush vying for attention
DES MOINES, Iowa — Republicans Donald Trump and Ted Cruz intensified their feud Monday with frontrunner Trump branding his rival nasty and “a whack job” and Cruz challenging Trump’s conservatism, one week before Iowa votes in the US presidential nominations contest.
Both men are counting on victory in the heartland state, which holds the first-in-the-nation vote in the long march to election day in November, to propel their candidacy into the top spot heading toward primaries in coming weeks in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.
They are pouring resources into Iowa, with Cruz in the midst of a days-long multi-county tour and Trump engaging in more retail politicking here in recent days.
Ten other Republicans are scrambling for respectability in Iowa, including Senator Marco Rubio, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Florida governor Jeb Bush.
But it is increasingly looking like a two-horse race.
Cruz, a first-term senator from Texas, met voters in Manchester, Iowa to tell them, “we’re in the final sprint. 172 hours. One week from today the Iowa caucuses will decide.”
The conservative firebrand again questioned Trump’s record, arguing the New York real estate billionaire and reality TV star has been out of step with the party when it comes to issues like taxes, gun and abortion rights, and the size of government.
“I’m happy to have a conversation about how Donald’s and my records differ,” Cruz said.
But as for engaging in the brutal personal counterpunching that Trump is known for, Cruz was not taking the bait.
Trump “is now insulting me every day. He can do that, that is his prerogative,” Cruz said.
“I will not respond in kind because the people of Iowa… and the people of this country deserve something better.”
The tenor of the campaign has turned tense one week from the vote, with Trump increasing his verbal assaults on Cruz.
“I think the establishment actually is against me, but really coming online, because they see me as opposed to Cruz, who is a nasty guy who can’t get along with anybody,” Trump told CNN.
“We can’t have a guy who stands in the middle of the Senate floor and every other senator thinks he’s a whack job, right? You have to make deals.
“And Ted can’t get along with anybody. He’s a nasty person.”
Trump continued his assault via Twitter, assailing Cruz as “a nervous wreck” who is sinking in the polls.
Trump is riding high in polls, with Cruz second. Trump secured the endorsement last week of conservative icon Sarah Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee.
Cruz, for his part, earned the endorsement Monday of former campaign rival Rick Perry, the onetime Texas governor who last year called Trump a “cancer on conservatism.”