I get together with people better than Cruz

Presidential candidate, Senator Ted Cruz said, “I can not wait to stand on the debate stage with Hillary Clinton”.

Cruz rose to 31 per cent, above Trump’s 21 per cent, in an Iowa poll released on Saturday by the Des Moines Register and Bloomberg News.

Fox News has better news for Trump, with its latest poll showing Cruz with only a two-point lead over the real estate mogul among likely caucusgoers. “Every time the Des Moines Register does a poll, I always do badly”, Trump said, miming some of the votes being put into his pocket. “You look at the way he’s dealt with the Senate, where he goes in there, frankly like a little bit of a maniac”, Trump added. Not if Cruz has his way. “If that’s what we need to do to beat Trump”, the Republican said, “then that’s what you get”.

He’ll never get anything done and that’s the problem with Ted.

Cruz responded to this jab within hours. “The Trump phenomenon took us all by surprise, but the Cruz phenomenon has not”.

The exchange caps a tense weekend between the two Republican Oval Office hopefuls.

A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows Trump in the lead with 27 percent among Republicans nationally, and other polls give him similar leads in many state contests for the party’s presidential nomination.

The two have been cordial to each other, but Trump on Friday suggested Cruz’s opposition to continuing ethanol subsidies might be fueled by ties to oil companies in his home state of Texas.

Just seven weeks before the Iowa caucuses, Cruz soared to first place, beating out Trump by double digits. On Fox News Sunday, Trump said Cruz has conducted himself “like a bit of a maniac”.

Ted Cruz campaigning in Iowa. “Those who are definitely going to caucus are less likely to support him, so he needs to motivate people to attend who may not usually do so”. “Who am I comfortable having their finger on the button”, Cruz said.

Mr. Trump continues to be out in front in national polls, but his lead is shrinking.

Trump countered Cruz’s assertion that he can’t match Cruz’s judgment as well, recounting to CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” a list of examples he believes he’s had better judgment.

“I have made a decision to postpone my trip and to schedule my meeting with Netanyahu at a later date after I become President of the United States”, he wrote on his Twitter account. But new national polling from NBC/WSJ shows that while Iowa may be shifting, nationally Trump still remains on top – leading the field with 30 percent.