Donald Trump kept his promise, and Ted Cruz pulled his punch.
Given the chance to bash billionaire Trump for boycotting Thursday night’s Fox News debate because of his dislike for debate moderator Megyn Kelly, Cruz stopped short of outright bashing Trump for failing to give Iowans one last chance to see him on stage with the other GOP contenders Thursday.
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Instead, Cruz, the Texas senator who is neck-and-neck with Trump in the latest polls to win Iowa, which votes Monday, thanked the other contenders for showing up. Then he made a joke.
“I’m a maniac and everyone on this stage is stupid, fat and ugly and Ben, you’re a terrible surgeon,” said Cruz, turning to neurosurgeon Ben Carson. “Now that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way…”
Roughly three miles away, a defiant Trump appeared at an event raising money for veterans, announcing that his foundation has raised $5 million for veterans and that he was putting up $1 million of his own money. He also launched a site for collecting donations. The page says: “100 percent of your donations will go directly to Veterans needs.”
During more than two hours at an event hall in Des Moines, the debate remained contentious despite Trump’s absence, with Cruz and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sparring over immigration reform, with former Fla. Gov. Jeb Bush repeatedly forced to defend his role as an “establishment candidate” and with Cruz at one point threatening – it wasn’t clear if it was a joke - to walk off the stage if moderator Chris Wallace asked him one more “mean” question.
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