Iowa poll: Ted Cruz leads Donald Trump

Soon after the latest Iowa Poll was released, Hagle said one concern for Cruz may be taking this large of a lead with plenty of time left in the game. Iowa has a strong evangelical constituency, and Trump was quick to note, “I am an evangelical”.

That makes the former Florida governor one of the names discussed when the establishment debates whether a smaller field would help it defeat Trump and Ted Cruz.

And, in keeping with the schoolyard bully metaphor, it boils down to: “Nobody likes you!”

Even though Donald Trump has been aiming his jabs at his fellow GOP presidential hopefuls, he isn’t about to mince words about his opponents on the side of the party line.

On the Fox program, he also criticised Mr Cruz for talking about him behind his back.

Cruz has increased his numbers by 21% since a poll that was taken two months ago. Trump’s Iowa problem has been brewing for some time, back in October, it was Ben Carson who was in the lead and if you remember, back then, George, trump responded by saying, how stupid are the people in Iowa?

“I have better judgment than Ted”, he told CNN’s Jake Tapper. I am leading by so much he must. “Here they’ve got a guy running for president who is waging war against Islam”, Kerry said. “Do you know how to use the people around you?” After asking Iowans “What the hell are you people doing to me?” and “How stupid are the people of Iowa? In fact, I was criticized in the beginning because I get along with Democrats and liberals and Republicans, and conservatives – I get along with everybody”.

Rubio on Sunday said he continues to believe that Trump is not qualified to be president because of his level of “understanding on some of these critical issues before our country”, including foreign policy and national security.

“You know, it’s an extremely different kind of encounter”, he said. Both of them, I like and respect both Donald and Ben. “That’s good judgment. I was for bombing the oil long before anybody else thought about it. That’s good judgment”. I built a multi-, multi-, multi-billion-dollar company. “Some of the greatest assets in the world”, he said.

Trump continued, “You can’t walk into the Senate and scream and call people liars and not be able to cajole and get along with people”. The question is – and we might find out the answer on Tuesday – is are Republicans willing to put up with Trump’s xenophobia in order to avoid alienating his supporters? All the Republicans will be asked if they still stick by their pledge to support whoever the eventual nominee is, including Trump.

Plus, Abby Phillip of The Washington Post says at least two other candidates see a chance to help themselves by attacking Cruz’s support for curtailing the government’s surveillance powers.