Donald Trump accuses Ted Cruz of fraud in Iowa, calls for new election
Donald Trump revisited his relatively demure response to coming in second place in the Iowa caucus Wednesday morning when he went on a tirade, accusing winner Ted Cruz of "fraud" and demanding a new election.
Over the course of an hour, he detailed his grievances against Cruz. He said that Cruz's team put out a release telling his supporters that neurosurgeon Ben Carson had dropped out of the race and then tried to win over those voters. That's true - after Carson announced he was returning to Florida after the caucus (to secure a "fresh change of clothes"), Cruz's team did, in fact, email supporters. Cruz later said that his campaign should have sent a follow-up note once they realized he was not ending his presidential bid.
Trump also attacked Cruz over an official-looking mailer his campaign sent to voters just before the caucuses that graded Iowans and their neighbors for past election turnout and implored them to caucus Monday night to improve those scores.
The Iowa secretary of state condemned the flyers - which contained the words "voting violation" emblazoned across the top - but did not take any further action. Trump's description of the mailers: "Fraud."
Plus, he accused Cruz of telling "thousands of caucusgoers" that Trump favored Obamacare and was pro-choice. "A total lie!" he tweeted.
The businessman has, in the past, said he supported universal healthcare and possibly even a single-payer system, but he has consistently pledged to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He did once identify as pro-choice.
Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler told CNN, it's just an attempt by Trump to return to the spotlight.
"The reality hit the reality TV star in Iowa so nobody is talking about him now. So he's trying to regain some attention on Twitter," he said.
Cruz won the Iowa Republican caucus Monday with 28 percent of the vote. Trump finished second with 24 percent, just above Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, who received 23 percent of the vote. Carson finished a distant fourth with 9 percent of the vote.