Trump tweets fraud in Cruz Iowa win: ‘T’s meltdown’ or free publicity?

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz gave his harshest assessment yet of Donald Trump’s candidacy on Wednesday, saying the Iowa caucus runner-up is throwing a “Trumpertantrum” after his loss.

But Trump still holds a commanding lead in New Hampshire and national polls. “Because he’s losing it”, said Cruz while on the campaign trail in New Hampshire, the location of the next big primary election. Mr Rubio is trying to be the Republican establishment’s preferred alternative to Mr Trump or Mr Cruz.

Officials from the Iowa Republican Party did not respond immediately to questions about their process for handling complaints like Trump’s.

Carson finished a distant fourth in Monday’s Iowa Caucuses, garnering 9 percent of the vote and finishing behind Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and Marco Rubio. The real estate mogul argued for a “new election” or for the Texas senator’s results to be “nullified”.

Needless to say, holding the Iowa caucuses for a second time seems rather unlikely, but these latest broadsides should only intensify the increasingly contentious battle between Trump and Cruz. Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa), for example, a prominent Cruz surrogate, wrote on Twitter: “Carson looks like he is out”.

“I think that the good old simple system where you walk in and you cast your vote, like we have, as an example, in New Hampshire, I think it’s better”. The former secretary of state and first lady defeated Sanders by less than three-tenths of 1 per cent, the closest result in Iowa Democratic caucus history, the state party said.

Iowa is an important state because it is the first to go to the polls and successful presidential candidates nearly always win there. “At no point did the network indicate Dr. Carson would suspend his campaign”.

Meanwhile, Republicans and Democrats descended on the tiny New England state of New Hampshire, which votes next Tuesday.

Political pundits had noted with some alarm this morning that Trump had gone Twitter silent after his surprisingly gracious/humble-ish concession speech in Iowa, where he “lost” [snagged one less delegate] to Ted Cruz.

Mr Trump also cited Cruz leaflets that accused Iowans of “voting violations”. “He said the man has just left the race and he said it during the caucus… the problem with politics is that we have all these dishonest politicians”.

“It is total voter fraud”, Trump said.