CRUZ, TRUMP FIGHT IT OUT IN SOUTH CAROLINA
Once- congenial candidates extend claws, exchange swipes
So much for that Donald Trump- Ted Cruz friendship.
The two anti- establishment candidates who once spoke so well of each other are defining South Carolina’s Republican primary with mutual recriminations and even the threat of a lawsuit by Trump against Cruz.
Saying the election has too often resembled “a circus,” Cruz told a supportive crowd at a National Guard armory Tuesday in Columbia that “the time for frivolity is over — the time for games is over.”
Trump, the leader of many Palmetto State polls by wide margins, said this week that “my only worry about South Carolina is that my opponents lie— especially Cruz.”
Cruz attack ads question Trump’s commitment to conservatism. Trump said the Texas senator lies about Trump’s positions on abortion, gun rights and other issues important to Republicans, and he has threatened to retaliate with a lawsuit challenging Cruz’s eligibility to be president because he was born in Canada. How things have changed. During Trump’s rise to front- runner status in the Republican field during the second half of last year, Cruz refused repeated invitations to criticize the New York businessman. The two candidates even did an event together in September to protest the Iran nuclear agreement.
Trump returned Cruz’s favor — until Iowa. As Cruz passed Trump in some polls in the Hawkeye State, the businessman began raising questions about the Texan’s eligibility to be president, given his birth in Canada. Cruz said he is eligible because his mother was a U. S. citizen.
The feud escalated after Cruz won the Iowa caucuses Feb. 1. Trump accused the Texas senator of using dirty tricks to prevail. He has described Cruz as “unstable,” as well as a liar.
During the South Carolina campaign, Cruz has sought to highlight Trump’s past support for Democratic candidates and policies, including abortion rights and gun control. As in Iowa, Cruz hopes to take South Carolina via the support of the state’s many evangelical and socially conservative voters.
Trump, who says he opposes abortion and would protect the Second Amendment, has objected to Cruz’s criticism of his sister, a federal appellate judge. Cruz called Maryanne Trump Barry a “radical pro- abortion extremist.” Trump said last year she would make a good Supreme Court justice, though Sunday after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the billionaire said he was joking and it would be a “conflict of interest” to nominate her.
Tuesday, Cruz toured South Carolina with a former rival who was one of the first to speak out against Trump: former Texas governor Rick Perry.
In a state that has many military bases and veterans who vote, Cruz campaigns on a pledge of “rebuilding the American military,” which he describes as “one of the most serious tasks facing the next commander in chief.”
Both Trump and Cruz campaign against what they call the Republican establishment, saying it has let down GOP voters.