Trump Calls for Iowa Caucus Redo, Says Cruz Stole Caucuses

The GOP front-runners exchanged blows on Twitter Wednesday about the caucus results.

Prior to the Iowa caucuses, where Trump’s lead in the polls was much narrower than his lead in New Hampshire, the Trump campaign did not seek to downplay expectations.

Mr Cruz’s campaign has also been criticised for distributing an official-looking leaflet to voters ahead of the election, telling them that failing to vote constituted a “violation”. The announcement was taken by many as sign Carson would end his bid.

“And I think they will in this case”, he said.

Asked to clarify that he was talking about rumors spread by Cruz campaign supporters, such as Rep. Steve King of Iowa, that he was ending his candidacy, Carson acknowledged he was. Iowans need to know before they vote. “Most will go to Cruz, I hope”.

Trump fired off a barrage of morning tweets accusing Cruz of having “stolen” the Hawkeye State vote with underhanded tactics and demanded, yes, a rematch. 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. Marco Rubio trailed just behind Trump in third place with 23 percent. Carson finished a distant fourth Monday night, with 9 percent of the vote. Those are the next two states holding primaries, and both are logical destinations for candidates serious about galvanizing voters.

“Meet Ted Cruz, your new front-runner”, added Glenn Thrush in Politico.

“He spent four years in the United States Senate being frustrated like everybody else that nothing got done and then you can’t point to him and say well nothing got done therefore he has no accomplishments”, Santorum said.

People keep sending screenshots and partial quotes to try and support Cruz’s campaign, but there is nothing in any of CNN’s reporting to indicate that Carson was “skipping” anything, just that he was going to Florida for a few days.

“I mean, we are liable to wake up one morning and Donald, if he were president, would have nuked Denmark”.

Carson insisted to reporters: “I didn’t make that announcement”. “It’s clear that there were people who tried to take advantage of a situation, who tried to distort information”, Carson said. “We started this campaign nationally, as you well know, 40, 50, points behind Secretary Clinton …”

“It is no surprise that Donald is throwing yet another temper-tantrum, or if you like, yet another Trumpertantrum”, Cruz said.

“We simply as a campaign repeated what Ben Carson had said in his own words”.

“If I am the nominee, we are going to beat Hillary Clinton and it won’t be by the flip of a coin”, Rubio told supporters in Exeter, New Hampshire, taking a jab at the close Democratic race in Iowa between Clinton and challenger Bernie Sanders, where some precincts were decided on a coin flip.

Cruz’s campaign has defended itself, saying it was only sharing news reports.