Cruz, Trump in ad battle
Front-runners sharpen barbs
THE UNEASY bromance between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz has exploded into an all-out war.
The leading Republican presidential contenders rolled out new ads Friday — eviscerating one another for past positions and calling into question their ultra-conservative bonafides.
The Trump ad paints the Texas senator as a flip-flopper who once supported allowing illegal immigrants to remain in the U.S.
The TV spot features footage of Cruz stumbling over his words in a December interview with Fox News as he tries to explain his position on immigration reform.
“Yeah, right Ted,” reads a message that follows clips of Cruz’s blubbering Fox interview.
Trump’s ad — which is slated to run in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — includes a clip of the Donald in an ABC interview blasting the flow of immigrants into the country.
“We have people pouring in, pouring in, and they’re doing tremendous damage,” Trump said, “if you look at crime, if you look at the economy.”
It marks Trump first attack ad — a sign, experts say, that the billionaire mogul is worried about Cruz’s momentum heading into the Iowa caucuses .
“Donald Trump is simply trying to distract voters from his own support of amnesty,” Cruz spokeswoman Catherine Frazier said.
Cruz’s TV spot rips into Trump for supporting eminent domain laws.
A female narrator describes eminent domain as “a fancy term for politicians seizing private property to enrich the fat cats who bankroll them.”
“Like Trump,” she says, before adding, “Trump won’t change the system.”
“He’s what’s wrong with it.”