The Republican race for the party’s 2016 presidential nomination erupted into a four-candidate crossfire on Wednesday over who has the proper experience and is the most conservative, days before South Carolina voters put their stamp on the campaign.
In TV interviews and campaign events, front-runner Donald Trump threatened to sue Senator Ted Cruz of Texas over a negative TV ad, while Senator Marco Rubio of Florida accused Cruz of lying about his record, and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush questioned Rubio’s experience to serve as president.
Amid the squabbling, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley endorsed Rubio as the Republicans’ best hope for winning the White House, a boost to Rubio and a blow to Bush, who had lobbied hard for her to pick him.
The endorsement gave Rubio, 44, a valuable ally to try to sway voters ahead of Saturday’s South Carolina Republican primary, the third contest after Iowa and New Hampshire to pick a party nominee for the November 8 election to succeed Democratic President Barack Obama.
Bush had a tough day, learning of Haley’s endorsement right before a town hall meeting in Summerville, South Carolina, where four members of the audience second-guessed his campaign strategy and offered tips on how to have a greater impact in the state.
Much of the debate took place over the television airwaves, as Trump, 69, a billionaire businessman and former reality TV star, lobbed charges at his rivals at an MSNBC town hall, and Rubio and Cruz battled in back-to-back appearances at a CNN town hall in Greenville, South Carolina.
Trump fumed about a TV ad put out by the Cruz campaign that brought up Trump’s past position in support of a woman’s right to an abortion. Trump says he has evolved into a conservative and is now against abortion.
Questioners at the town hall pressed Cruz, 45, on charges leveled against him by Trump that he may not be eligible to be president because he was born in Canada, and that none of his US Senate colleagues liked him. Cruz reiterated that met the constitutional requirement that a president must be a “natural born citizen” because his mother was an American and as for his Senate colleagues, Cruz said some may not like him because he serves the interests of his constituents, not fellow senators.
Rubio, hoping to overtake Cruz for second place in South Carolina, where Trump leads in the polls, accused Cruz of spreading falsehoods with an ad attacking Rubio over his position on immigration.
Rubio backed a 2013 Senate immigration reform effort that collapsed. Cruz says Rubio would have supported “amnesty” for illegal immigrants, which his rival denies.
Meanwhile, Bush, running fourth in South Carolina and behind Rubio, questioned Rubio’s level of experience after Rubio said Bush did not have foreign policy experience. Rubio counts his time on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as valuable experience.
The latest national Reuters/Ipsos poll showed Trump taking a more than 20-point lead over Cruz in the Republican race.
Trump had 40% support in the poll conducted from Saturday to Wednesday, compared with 17% for Cruz, 11% for Rubio, 10% for Ben Carson, and 8% for Bush.
The results contrasted with those of an NBC News/Wall Street Journal national poll that put Cruz ahead of Trump among Republicans by 28% to 26% .
