Campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination took a nasty turn on Wednesday, with billionaire businessman Donald Trump accusing US Senator Ted Cruz of fraud as the field of hopefuls narrowed ahead of next week’s New Hampshire primary.
US Senator Rand Paul, who has a libertarian philosophy, pulled out of the Republican race. Conservative Rick Santorum also exited the race on Wednesday and endorsed US Senator Marco Rubio.
Both Paul and Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, did poorly in Monday’s Iowa caucuses, which were won by Cruz, with Trump and Rubio finishing second and third.
Photo: Reuters
The caucuses were the first of the state-by-state nominating contests ahead of the Nov. 8 election to replace US President Barack Obama.
Trump went on Twitter on Wednesday to accuse the conservative US senator from Texas of stealing his victory in Iowa. Cruz’s team hit back by telling Trump to seek help for addiction to the social media site.
The two men are going head-to-head for voters in New Hampshire, where Cruz’s evangelical Christian credentials will not likely be as helpful as they were in Iowa. Opinion polls show Trump with an about 20-point lead in New Hampshire before Tuesday next week’s primary.
Trump called for the nullification of Cruz’s Iowa victory or a new vote in the state.
“Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it,” Trump said in a series of tweets. “That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!”
“Oh that voter fraud, you know, these politicians are brutal,” Trump said later at a rally in Little Rock, Arkansas. “They are a bunch of dishonest cookies, I want to tell you.”
The Cruz campaign said Trump’s complaint was a cry for attention after the senator came from behind in the polls to win on Monday.
A Cruz spokesman suggested he seek help for “Twitter addiction.”
“It is no surprise that Donald is throwing yet another temper-tantrum, or if you like, yet another Trumpertantrum,” Cruz said. “I understand that Donald finds it very hard to lose, but at the end of the day, the Iowa people spoke.”
Santorum said on Fox News that he was suspending his run and called Rubio a “born leader.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Paul became the second Republican to drop out of the race since the Iowa caucuses, after former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese