Donald Trump attacked Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) in his closing statement at the ABC News Republican debate Saturday night.
In his closing statement, Cruz talked about winning the Iowa
caucuses. Trump had been leading the polls there for weeks before
caucus night, but he ended up coming in second to Cruz.
"I campaigned in the state of Iowa foursquare against the
ethanol mandate, something everyone said was political suicide," Cruz
said.
"My two leading competitors both attacked me for it, the
governor of the state said vote for anyone but Cruz, and lobbyists spent
millions of dollars on attack ads," he continued. "But I stood and said
we should have no mandates, a level playing field, and the people of
Iowa put country and our children above the cronyism and corporate
welfare."
Trump was next up to make his closing statement, and he used it to take a shot at Cruz and repeat accusations that Cruz "stole" the Iowa win.
When it was his turn to speak, Trump said, "That’s because you got Ben Carson’s votes, by the way, but we won’t say it."
Trump initially conceded to Cruz gracefully after his
somewhat stunning Monday-night loss, but he eventually changed tactics,
going on the attack later in the week to accuse Cruz of cheating.
On Twitter on Wednesday,
Trump suggested that the Cruz campaign's actions on caucus night
constituted "fraud" and said that either a new vote should take place or
that the results should be "nullified."
Trump's accusations are based on messages from the Cruz
campaign on caucus night, implying that retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson
was planning to drop out of the race for the Republican presidential
nomination.
The Cruz campaign called and sent messages
to Iowa precinct captains on Monday saying that Carson was suspending
his campaign and telling them that they should encourage people to
caucus for Cruz instead. The Cruz campaign did not widely disseminate a
clarification stating that Carson was not leaving the race.
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