This article is from the source 'independent' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-and-ted-cruz-trade-insults-as-presidential-race-rolls-on-a6947301.html

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Donald Trump and Ted Cruz trade insults as presidential race rolls on US Election 2016: Donald Trump and Ted Cruz trade threats and insults about wives as presidential race reaches nadir
(about 17 hours later)
The Republican presidential race turned yet more toxic last night, with Donald Trump and Ted Cruz exchanging personal insults online as they waited to learn the results of votes in Arizona and Utah. On a day when the billionaire front-runner and his closest rival had already traded low blows over the terror attacks in Brussels, their vitriolic Twitter exchange provided a bitter backdrop for the primary contests in the West. The Republican presidential race has reached a new low, with Donald Trump and Ted Cruz trading Twitter threats and insults about their wives as they waited for results from the latest contests to decide the party’s nominee. 
Mr Trump racked up 58 more delegates from Arizona’s winner-takes-all race but, in neighbouring Utah, the Cruz campaign was hoping to secure the 50 per cent of the vote necessary to claim all 40 of the state’s delegates. Before the Utah caucuses – one of a number of states to hold votes on so-called “Western Tuesday” – an anti-Trump super PAC [funding body] released a Facebook advertisement featuring Mr Trump’s wife, Melania posing naked for a 2000 GQ magazine cover. The caption on the image said: “Meet Melania Trump, your next first lady. Or you could support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.”
Ahead of the Utah vote, the anti-Trump super PAC Make America Awesome had released a series of Facebook advertisements targeting Mormons, who make up 60 per cent of the Beehive State’s population. The ads featured Mr Trump’s wife, Melania – a former model – posing naked for a GQ magazine cover from 2000, with the caption: “Meet Melania Trump, your next first lady. Or you could support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.” Responding to the attack Mr Trump threatened Mr Cruz’s wife Heidi in a tweet. “Be careful, lyin’ Ted,” he warned, “or I will spill the beans on your wife!” Mr Cruz replied by pointing out that the ad had not come from his campaign, tweeting that Mr Trump was “classless” and “a coward.”
Responding to the attack, Mr Trump threatened Mr Cruz’s wife Heidi in a cryptic tweet. “Be careful, Lyin’ Ted,” he warned, “or I will spill the beans on your wife!” Mr Cruz replied by pointing out that the ad had not come from his campaign. Calling Mr Trump’s threat “classless”, he tweeted: “Donald, if you try to attack Heidi, you’re more of a coward than I thought.” It was unclear exactly what “beans” Mr Trump could “spill” regarding Ms Cruz, a senior investment manager at Goldman Sachs. Ms Cruz said she was unconcerned by the threat, telling reporters in Wisconsin: “Most of the things that Donald Trump says have no basis in reality.”
It remained unclear exactly what “beans” Mr Trump could “spill” regarding Mrs Cruz, Heidi, a senior investment manager at Goldman Sachs, who is on a leave of absence from the firm for the duration of her husband’s White House campaign. In New York, Mr Cruz said Mr Trump’s tweet about his wife was “gutter politics”. He added that Mr Trump tries to “attack and bully people” but should know that spouses and children are off-limits. Continuing on that theme when speaking to CNN, Mr Cruz said: “If Donald wants to get in a character fight he’s better off sticking with me, because Heidi is way out of his league.”
The two men had also clashed earlier in the day, over their differing responses to the attacks in Brussels. On Monday, Mr Trump had outlined a broadly isolationist foreign policy platform, which included scaling back US involvement in Nato. Shortly after the attacks, Mr Cruz seized on those remarks to criticise the frontrunner. As for the political results from Tuesday, Mr Trump racked up 58 more delegates from Arizona’s contest, but Mr Cruz maintained pressure on the property mogul, romping to victory in Utah with 69 per cent of the vote. That was way beyond the 50 per cent threshold required to claim all of the state’s 40 delegates.
“It is striking that the day after Donald Trump called for weakening Nato, withdrawing from Nato, we see Brussels, where NATO is headquartered, the subject of a radical Islamic terror attack,” Mr Cruz said at a press conference, adding: “Donald Trump is wrong that America should withdraw from the world and abandon our allies.” Senator Cruz of Texas also received a boost from an unlikely quarter: the former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, who endorsed Mr Cruz a month after suspending his own White House bid. “For the sake of our party and country, we must overcome the divisiveness and vulgarity Donald Trump has brought into the political arena or we will certainly lose our chance to defeat the Democratic nominee this fall,” Mr Bush wrote in a Facebook post.
Mr Cruz also called for a moratorium on refugees coming to the US from countries with “a significant al-Qaeda or Isis presence” and said the US needed to “empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighbourhoods before they become radicalised.” Mr Bush’s endorsement is the latest sign that top Republicans are uniting behind the ultra-conservative Mr Cruz, once considered a bitter antagonist to his party’s establishment, but now their last, best hope to defeat the billionaire front-runner. “What we’re seeing all across the country is the momentum is with us,” Mr Cruz told CNN. “You want to talk about a broad coalition, ideologically diverse – that covers the entire spectrum of the Republican Party.”
Mr Trump, as if attempting to out-tough the Texas Senator, re-iterated his plan to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the US. As President, he told ABC News, he would reintroduce waterboarding, adding: “I would try to expand the laws to go beyond waterboarding.” Mr Trump nonetheless increased his delegate lead on Tuesday, and now has 738 towards the 1,237 majority needed to claim the Republican presidential nomination before the party’s convention in July. So far Mr Cruz has just 463 delegates.
The rancour between the Republicans is a preview of what could be an uncommonly nasty general election – especially if, as now seems probable, Mr Trump becomes the party’s nominee. The Donald has demonstrated little compunction about making personal attacks on his likely Democrat rival, Hillary Clinton, who last night won her own party’s primary in Arizona. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton maintained her lead over Bernie Sanders with a comfortable win in Arizona, the biggest prize of the night. But like Mr Trump, she had less luck elsewhere on the electoral map. Mr Sanders trounced the former Secretary of State in Utah and Idaho, picking up a total of 57 delegates to Ms Clinton’s 51 from the three contests. Yet he still trails the Democratic frontrunner by more than 300.
Asked on CNN earlier to respond to Mr Trump’s claims that she lacked the “stamina” and “strength” required of a president, the former Secretary of State declined. “I don’t want to respond to his constant stream of insults,” she said. “I find it really, at this point, absurd.” In spite of the adverse arithmetic, the Vermont Senator signalled his intention to fight to the end by campaigning this week in California, which votes on the very last day of the primary season in June.
Tuesday’s results were overshadowed by events in Brussels, not least because three Mormon missionaries from Utah were injured in the terrorist attacks on the Belgian capital. Following the bombings, Mr Cruz said the US ought to “empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighbourhoods before they become radicalised”. Mr Trump advocated the torture of terrorism suspects, telling ABC News he would “try to expand the laws to go beyond waterboarding”.
Speaking in Seattle, where she was campaigning ahead of Saturday’s Washington state caucus, Ms Clinton criticised the responses of her Republican rivals. “The last thing we need are leaders who incite more fear,” she said.