Back in form, Donald Trump accuses Cruz of stealing Iowa

The mailers gave the recipients a failing grade for not voting in past elections, and said they could rectify it by voting for Cruz in Monday’s caucuses. Ted Cruz and Florida Sen.

Iowa Rep. Steve King, a national co-chairman of Cruz’s campaign, wrote on Twitter Monday evening: “Looks like (Carson) is out”.

Harrington and Fox News host Jon Scott also discussed the state of play in the Democratic race, where Bernie Sanders battled to a virtual tie with frontrunner Hillary Clinton in Iowa and now leads her by double digits in the New Hampshire primary.

The Senator from Florida, Rubio came a close third in Iowa surprising many with his performance.

For all the talk about Cruz and Trump, Marco Rubio is the bookies’ favourite to get the Republican nomination.

Carson’s campaign has called it a “dirty trick”, claiming Cruz supporters had used the false information to urge caucus-goers to switch their support from Carson to Cruz, competing for the doctor’s socially conservative, evangelical base constituency. The poll includes interviews with a random sample of 556 adult residents of New Hampshire, including 209 who say they plan to vote in the Republican presidential primary.

Trump’s position is that would-be Carson voters threw their support to Cruz when their candidate “dropped out”, giving Cruz his victory over Trump.

“Some people thought the debate, you know, not doing the debate might have been a positive for perhaps my opponents”, Trump said.

Trump said he would have won Iowa if the Carson rumor had not been allowed to spread, suggesting that Cruz picked up votes that would have otherwise gone to Carson.

Donald Trump stays in first, with 36%; Rubio takes over second place, with 15%. He then added that “there are Twitter addiction support groups, so he should seek out his local chapter”.

But his Iowa tally – in second place at just above 24 percent, marginally ahead of Senator Marco Rubio – in the first vote raises serious questions about whether showmanship has a winning strategy.

But CNN has denied that its report implied that Carson was dropping out.

“I don’t think T’s meltdown today is helping his campaign”, he told AFP.

Trump reignited the war between the two GOP presidential front-runners by releasing a barrage of accusatory tweets Wednesday, following his defeat by Cruz in the Iowa caucuses on Monday.

Jeb Bush was in Manchester during the Iowa caucus, while Chris Christie was in Nashua – an indication that the Republican candidates have put all their eggs into New Hampshire’s basket.