Trump calls for Iowa election do-over

Donald Trump went on the offensive yesterday, accusing Republican rival Ted Cruz of stealing victory in Iowa as he sought to burnish his standing ahead of next week’s primary voting in New Hampshire. Trump called for the results to be “nullified”.

Carson said “as a Christian”, he has accepted Cruz’s apology but insisted that the people in Cruz’s camp responsible for the disinformation should be fired.

“This was absolutely deliberate. I have no question about that”, Carson said on Fox News Channel’s “On the Record with Greta Van Susteren” on Thursday.

Carson questioned Cruz’s honesty and integrity, asking, “Where is the truth and honesty and the integrity?”

The Cruz campaign blamed the mistake on a misunderstanding of a CNN report, but CNN insisted that it never carried a report that Carson was suspending his campaign.

“To turn out Indian Americans in New Hampshire to vote for Donald Trump on February 9, the Indian-Americans for Trump 2016 officers chose to educate the Indian-Americans about the primary election process”, a statement said. Roaming the floor at the Hampshire Hills Athletic Club where the speech took place was a man dressed like Trump – a site sporadically seen throughout the campaign.

On the Republican side, Cruz’s win in Iowa provided a twist worthy of the topsy-turvy race. “But I think it behooves public opinion researchers that we try to tell the public the real story of what’s going on”. “I think he needs to move on”.

Trump also accused Cruz of sending out a “voter violation” certificate to thousands of voters.

The former secretary of state and first lady defeated Mr Sanders by less than three-tenths of 1%, the closest result in Iowa Democratic caucus history, the state party said.

In a tweet, he wrote: “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated”. Trump appeared to take the loss graciously Monday night, but by Wednesday morning he had turned.

Dartmouth University political scientist Linda Fowler said it could hurt Cruz if other candidates start to pick up on the interaction and say: “There’s a reason why nobody likes Ted Cruz, and here it is”. “It is odd behavior for a grown man”. He mocked reporters for giving Rubio so much positive press for finishing third while simultaneously saying it was disappointing for Trump to finish second.

Rand Paul announced he was dropping out, and that put a new crop of voters up for grabs for the other contenders.

New Hampshire’s open primary system can also affect how polls play out.

According to the latest RealClearPolitics average of the latest polls, Trump leads all candidates with 32.8% support. He has given his campaign about two-thirds of its $19 million funds (‘It’s not worth it!’ he tweeted this week), but that sum looks piddling compared with the $47 million raised by Cruz or the $112 million behind Hillary Clinton.

Hubbard said he’ll wait until after New Hampshire, where it’s possible New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie or Ohio Gov. John Kasich could have a solid showing, before putting big money into 2016.