Trump again goads Canadian-born Cruz on his eligibility to run

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Sunday hammered away at his closest challenger’s eligibility to be US president, while the party’s Senate leader said the chamber will stay out of the fray involving Ted Cruz’s citizenship.

A loss in Iowa, however, would make him vulnerable in New Hampshire, where he leads in the polls, and could jeopardize his candidacy, which is all about stressing the importance of victories. Legal experts largely agree that Cruz meets the Constitution’s natural-born citizenship requirement because he was born to an American mother and had her citizenship at birth.

While Cruz seemed to rule out the possibility that his mother was a dual citizen, he himself was a dual citizen of the USA and Canada and renounced his Canadian citizenship in 2014 in anticipation of his a presidential campaign.

“You can’t have a person who’s running for office, even though Ted is very glib and he goes out and says ‘Well, I’m a natural born citizen, ‘ but the point is you’re not”, Trump said.

Trump tops Cruz nearly 4-1 on the negative list as 26 percent of Iowa Republican Caucus-goers say they “would definitely not support” Trump, with 7 percent who would not support Cruz. “I mean, he’s got a problem”, Trump said Monday at a rally in Windham, New Hampshire. “Looking them in the eye”, Cruz told supporters.

FOX News got the ball rolling Friday evening with three new polls charting the views of Republican voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and nationally. Other Republican candidates have jumped on the bandwagon.

“We all know that everybody says they have a good turnout operation, but you really don’t find that out until caucus night when one candidate always has a little bit better turnout operation than the others”, Brown said.

“I would rather win it straight up”, he told the ballroom. Perhaps that’s why McCain, when asked by a Phoenix television station to comment on Cruz’s eligibility, responded: “I think there is a question”. And … it hasn’t gone to the Supreme Court.

And the Texas senator rejects Trump’s claim that his positions on ethanol are based on donations from the oil industry, despite that most of his super PAC’s anchor donors have made their money in the sector.

Trump is zeroing in on Cruz’s Canadian birth as he tries to remove the senator as a threat to his candidacy. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul agreed with Trump on “Face the Nation” on CBS that the Democrats are sure to challenge Cruz if his wins the nomination. An NBC poll released over the weekend showed Cruz having 28 percent support to Trump’s 24 percent.

Up until recently, Trump and Cruz have been cordial, with the two candidates regularly commending one another publicly.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event in Rock Hill, South Carolina January 8, 2016. And he said he was not seeking to disqualify Cruz over a technicality.

Cruz said he does not intend to engage with Trump.