Posted on 01/29/2016 11:48:05 AM PST by Red Steel
The Republican poll leader revels in Cruz getting 'pummeled' at the Fox debate.
Iowa is shaping up to be a two-man GOP race. And one suddenly has a limp.
Donald Trump on Friday wasted little time kicking a bruised Ted Cruz, his closest rival in Monday's Iowa caucuses who took the brunt of the Republican field's attacks after the real estate mogul bowed out of the prior night's Fox debate.
Appearing before a town hall here, the Republican poll leader crowed that Cruz "got pummeled" on stage at the Iowa Events Center while he raised $6 million for veterans groups at another event taking place at the same time at Drake University.
"I think we're going to do really well in Iowa. We're leading in the Iowa polls. And Cruz is in the second place. He got really pummeled last night. I'm glad I wasn't there. And they didn't even mention that he was born in Canada," Trump said. "So he got beaten pretty badly last night. And I don't know what's going to happen to him."
Trump took a gamble on Thursday night, walking away from the last big national moment before the caucuses, after the businessman unsuccessfully tried to persuade Fox to boot co-moderator Megyn Kelly. While Cruz predicted that Trump would come off as a coward, Trump ultimately managed to sidestep his rivals' knives which swiveled in Cruz's direction.
On Friday morning, Trump riffed on his latest hits on Cruz, especially his line that the senator's birth in Calgary, Canada, is a potentially disqualifying wrinkle to his presidential campaign.
"Ted Cruz is an anchor baby in Canada. But Canada doesn't accept anchor babies," the Queens-born businessman pondered aloud, adding "he's a citizen of Canada and a senator of Texas." Trump on Friday did not reference the fact that Cruz renounced his dual citizenship in 2014, though he has in the past cast suspicion on the timing of the renouncement.
Cruz was relatively mum on Friday morning, with plans for a town hall in Wilton, Iowa, in the evening. His campaign, however, acknowledged the blows Cruz had sustained but contended none of them did too much damage. "Yeah, there was a little more attacks on Senator Cruz, but I thought he held up fine under the scrutiny. Part of this whole game of Iowa is showing up," Cruz communications director Rick Tyler said in an interview with Boston Herald Radio.
Trump was just one part of the post-debate pile-on that smothered Cruz on Friday. The Des Moines Register came out with a screaming headline on its frontpage, proclaiming the debate was a "ROUGH NIGHT FOR CRUZ." And Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad - a long-time critic of Cruz's opposition to ethanol subsidies - predicted that the senator was losing support in the state.
"Ted Cruz was ahead in Iowa, but as people have figured out his stance on issues that are important to the economy of the state" he's lost support, Branstad said during a Friday morning taping of CSPAN's "Newsmakers." "He was ahead on polls, but now he's dropped below Trump."
The Des Moines Register is expected to provide the latest - and perhaps most important - snapshot of the race on Saturday night, but the poll may not reflect Iowans' sentiments after the debate, depending on when the survey wrapped up.
Before the debate, Trump had roughly a 7 point lead over Cruz, with Rubio in a distant third, trailing by double digits.
Rubio's camp has been setting expectations for a third-place finish, but the Florida senator was all-too-happy to jump into the post-debate Cruz bashing that ensued Friday morning.
He specifically tore into Cruz over his past involvement with comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate and beyond.
"When it comes to Ted, he's kind of built this campaign on this false notion that he is the only true conservative and everyone else is an apostate, you know. That's absurd," Rubio told Fox News. "Ted on immigration used to support legalizing people over here illegally and did so for a long time. I mean, he helped design George W. Bush's immigration approach, which had a path to citizenship, actually."
Mike Huckabee, meanwhile, slammed Cruz on CNN for a series of shifts on policy, including on ethanol, immigration, H-1B visas, marriage and religious liberty, hitting the senator for speaking out of both sides of his mouth depending on the audience.
"I think trust comes into question when a person starts changing their views on a whole variety of issues and they do it for political expediency - they don’t do it with any explanation of conviction - or when people change their views depending on the geography of where they happen to be," Huckabee said. "If they say one thing in Manhattan and another thing in Marshalltown, Iowa, that's when you start wondering about whether you can trust them."
A form of sympathy for Cruz came from an unlikely source on Friday morning: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who told Laura Ingraham that the man at center stage received too much scrutiny and that Rubio got off easy.
"When he was getting hit around last night - I know Senator Cruz has gotten a lot of attention today - but quite frankly, I think Senator Rubio deserves even more," Christie remarked.
Trump didn't get that memo. Not that he would've cared. Assailing Cruz for his reported failure to disclose loans from Goldman Sachs and Citibank during his 2012 Senate run, Trump attempted to set his New Hampshire crowd straight. "He didn't want to put Goldman Sachs, he didn't want to put Citibank down because he wants you to think he's Robin Hood," he explained.
Despite the heaping of criticism, Cruz's campaign remained bullish.
The latest indication of its confidence came Friday morning, when campaign manager Jeff Roe announced that Cruz had raised nearly $19 million by the end of December, ahead of this weekend's filing deadline with the Federal Elections Commission. "I bet that is potentially $10 million more than anyone else has in the bank," Roe declared at a Bloomberg breakfast on Friday morning in Des Moines.
Regardless of Monday's outcome in Iowa, Roe remarked that the campaign is well-organized for the long haul.
"We've got 19 million bucks in the bank, we're organized in all 50 states," he said. "We have the governor of Guam!"
Ping.
But lets not let the truth get in the way of the GOPe's march to the nomination. And that is exactly where they are taking this.
How is Cruz “down”? Don’t understand that.
Let’s face it, Trump’s a smartass punk. Cruz, admittedly, had one bad moment last night when he appeared to be whining about everyone ganging up on hi. But pummeled? Hardly.
A killer instinct. I like that.
“Iowa is shaping up to be a two-man GOP race. And one suddenly has a limp.”
ouch!
If Cruz can’t even stand up to a little ribbing how is he going to deal with the world’s leaders. Ted Duck.
You never cease to amaze me. I haven’t laughed that hard all day!
Priceless
Although I was annoyed by Wallace's invitation to the others to pile on I thought Cruz did pretty well.
Having just returned from a long walk with Fido, sensing a sharp tang in the air I checked the soles of my shoes ...
But it was only Politico.
“”I think we’re going to do really well in Iowa. We’re leading in the Iowa polls. And Cruz is in the second place. He got really pummeled last night. I’m glad I wasn’t there. And they didn’t even mention that he was born in Canada,” Trump said. “So he got beaten pretty badly last night. And I don’t know what’s going to happen to him.””
After Cruz’s nasty comments that Trump was afraid of a girl, is have no pity for Cruz.
He got a TINY taste of what Trump has faced for SIX months!
Well thank you FRiend!!
As you may have recognized, that picture originally was from the 1965 bout between Ali and Liston which also ended in the first round, sometimes things just come together nicely when it comes to doctoring up photos, lol
“The Republican poll leader revels in Cruz getting ‘pummeled’ at the Fox debate.”
I reveled in Trump not being there. It was good to see a debate without the eye rolling and goofy faces and childish insults being flung everywhere. So thank you Trump. It was a true pleasure.
Cruz threatened to walk off the stage. I would say that’s an expression of the toll on a person being the primary target. I think Trump is laughing cause now Ted knows what it has been like for him. Perhaps Ted may reflect back on the hat joke and slamming Trump for respecting himself and boycotting the debate.
Trump will beat Cruz by 7 points in Iowa
After teddy’s snaky smugness last night, he deserves everything he gets.
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