Donald Trump claims Ted Cruz 'stole' Iowa caucuses and calls for new election

theguardian.com

Donald Trump has claimed Ted Cruz committed “fraud” in his successful campaign to win the Republican Iowa caucuses on Monday, and has called for a new election.

Earlier, Trump accused Cruz of “stealing” the election in the key state, the first to vote in this stage of the 2016 presidential election.

He accused the Cruz campaign of telling Iowa voters that fellow candidate Ben Carson was quitting the race so he could steal Carson’s votes.

“During primetime of the Iowa Caucus, Cruz put out a release that@RealBenCarson was quitting the race, and to caucus (or vote) for Cruz,” Trump wrote. “Many people voted for Cruz over Carson because of this Cruz fraud. Also, Cruz sent out a VOTER VIOLATION certificate to thousands of voters.

“The Voter Violation certificate gave poor marks to the unsuspecting voter (grade of F) and told them to clear it up by voting for Cruz. Fraud.”

He added that “Cruz strongly told thousands of caucusgoers (voters) that Trump was strongly in favor of Obamacare and ‘choice’ – a total lie!”

Cruz had issued an apology of sorts to the Carson campaign for spreading the rumor on election night that Carson was dropping out of the race, which Cruz characterized as an honest “mistake”:

“Last night when our political team saw the CNN post saying that Dr Carson was not carrying on to New Hampshire and South Carolina, our campaign updated grassroots leaders just as we would with any breaking news story,” Cruz said in a statement on Tuesday.