The Donald Trump-Ted Cruz feud is reaching critical mass. In a new South Carolina attack ad, the anti-Trump Our Principles Super PAC hammers the business mogul on his “pattern of sleaze” in the use of state power for his personal gain at the expense of the average joe. Meanwhile, Trump has ratcheted up his rhetoric, taking a series of shots on Cruz’s “sleazy” political tactics and accusing the Texas senator of being an outright liar.
The new ad by Our Principles PAC — the group that launched a brutal ad highlighting all of Trump’s past liberal positions — uses Trump’s past exploitation of eminent domain to show that Trump’s populist posturing does not align with his past crony business dealings. As HotAir‘s Allahpundit notes, hitting Trump on his populist appeal is likely more effective than pointing out his non-conservative record:
The message here isn’t that Trump is abusing an arcane aspect of state power for his personal gain (although that message will be absorbed by dogmatic conservatives), it’s that Trump, for all of his populist bravado, tried to roll over the little guy in the person of Vera Coking to line his pockets. Trump’s critics on the right, like Liam Donovan, have been begging the rest of the field to pursue that line of attack for months. It’s not enough to say Trump isn’t really a conservative, since neither Trump nor his fans care much about that. To claim that he’s not really a populist, though — now you’re hitting him where he lives.
While the pro-Cruz PAC is smacking Trump for his “pattern of sleaze,” Trump is calling Cruz out on what he says are “sleazy and dishonest tactics.”
Within the last day or so, Trump has tweeted a number of attacks on Cruz all portraying him as a dishonest politicians. Citing the Ben Carson episode in Iowa — where Cruz campaign staffers told some voters that Carson was dropping out after CNN suggested that was the case — Trump is now accusing Cruz of more “sleazy” moves in South Carolina through negative robo-polls.
“We are getting reports from many voters that the Cruz people are back to doing very sleazy and dishonest ‘pushpolls’ on me. We are watching!” tweeted Trump.
Cruz has denied that he has the robo-polls are coming from him, telling an audience at a rally Thursday that he had “no idea” about the robo-polls, insisting, “We had nothing to do with them.”
Despite the denial, Trump continued the line of accusations, tweeting, “@truthinvest: @CNN @tedcruz @realDonaldTrump Ted Cruz is the definition of sleaze. Just ask @RealBenCarson.”
“Cruz caught cold in lie after denial of push polls like lies w/ @RealBenCarson. How can he preach Christian values?” he tweeted afterward, linking to a Politico article on the Carson episode.
South Carolina is shaping up to be an ugly but also a significant primary in part because it will tell us a lot about which tactics are effective in reaching Southern conservatives. Will they be turned off or swayed by the “sleazy” attacks? Is hitting Trump on his “populism” the right move? Do voters trust Cruz? We’ll see.