Cruz dismisses ‘swamp theories’ on citizenship

WAUKON, Iowa (AP) – On a collision course all week, Republican presidential front-runners Donald Trump and Ted Cruz were giving Iowa voters a look at their contrasting campaign styles Saturday.

Businessman Donald Trump goaded fellow Republican front-runner, Texas Sen.

An Iowa victory for the NY billionaire would be a validation of his insurgent candidacy against a host of establishment Republicans and put him in a strong position for the upcoming contest.

“On Friday, Breitbart News, which likes Ted Cruz but maybe likes Donald Trump a lil” bit more, posted a document from 1974 that listed Eleanor and Rafael Cruz as “electors for Canada’s federal election of July 8, 1974”. He renounced his dual Canadian citizenship in 2014, and on Friday, Cruz’s campaign shared with the conservative website Breitbart a copy of his mother’s birth certificate showing her born in the United States.

“You’ve gotta have the courts come up with the ruling or you have a candidate who just can not run”, Trump said.

What was a delicate detente has become strained as Cruz has jumped ahead in polls in Iowa, which holds the leadoff caucuses February 1, while Trump tops opinion surveys nationally and in early-voting New Hampshire.

Trump late previous year began efforts to undermine Cruz, questioning the senator’s religion and accusing him at recent events of stealing his idea to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The feud escalated Saturday as Trump lashed out at Cruz on multiple fronts before a packed 665-person capacity auditorium in Ottumwa, Iowa, with many more voters crowded into an overflow room.

“The polls are essentially tied”. He said the Texan first got his attention when he entered the U.S. Senate in 2013.

In Ottumwa, he took a swipe at the Texas senator over ethanol, saying Cruz – who in the past has opposed federal subsidies for the corn-produced biofuel – is only now claiming he’s a friend of farmers.

Trump is flying into Iowa for rallies in Ottumwa and Clear Lake – his first state events of the new year.

The brother of an Iraqi refugee who had settled in Texas says he’s still in shock after learning that his sibling is facing charges he tried to help the Islamic State group. “I’m going to be here a lot over the next three weeks – a lot”, he said. “I want to win fair and square”. In short, she did not live in Canada long enough to be a Canadian citizen by the time Cruz was born in 1970: “Canadian law required 5 years of permanent residence, and she moved to Canada in December 1967-only 3 years before Senator Cruz’s birth”.

But he appeared to offer a counterpunch on Friday, when he suggested that Trump wasn’t devoting the time and energy to wooing Iowa voters that history shows are needed to win.

“It’s factually inaccurate that the oil company’s lobbyists are supporting me”, Cruz told reporters Saturday night in Waverly. “I believe the only way to compete and win in the state of Iowa is to come and spend the time asking the voters for their support. Looking them in the eye”.

In saying he thinks Graham is qualified, the former candidate broke with his political partner, Sen. And you have the strength and courage of your convictions to say I can defend my record.

“There is a bipartisan corruption of career politicians in both parties that get in bed with the lobbyist and special interest and grow and grow and grow government and we need to take power out of Washington and back to we the people”, he said.

“I recognize that there are candidates in the field that don’t want to talk about those issues, and they want to instead encourage the good people of the media to go down rabbit trails and engage in silly sideshows”, Cruz said.