Two days after he was defeated by Republican rival Ted Cruz in the Iowa Caucus, presidential hopeful Donald Trump launched a Twitter tirade accusing the junior senator from Texas of election fraud. The “New York values” candidate took issue with the Cruz campaign’s botched handling of a misread news report on Monday that fellow Republican Ben Carson had decided to drop out of the race at the last minute. As a result, his argument suggested, the Iowa Caucus should either hold “a new election” or nullify the “Cruz results.”
Reporters first caught wind of the Twitter tantrum early Wednesday morning when Trump tweeted, then subsequently deleted a post about the matter.
Donald Trump seems to have just deleted this tweet pic.twitter.com/jJWfpkPXFE
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) February 3, 2016
However, instead of becoming self-aware for a brief moment just long enough to refrain from feeding the trolls, Trump had only removed the tweet in order to correct a minor typo. He immediately re-posted the tweet with the corrected text.
Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa, he stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2016
That’s when the Donald really let the accusations flow through him.
During primetime of the Iowa Caucus, Cruz put out a release that @RealBenCarson was quitting the race, and to caucus (or vote) for Cruz.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2016
Many people voted for Cruz over Carson because of this Cruz fraud. Also, Cruz sent out a VOTER VIOLATION certificate to thousands of voters.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2016
The former Republican front-runner was apparently angry about an incident that occurred late into Monday’s voting in Iowa. According to CNN, the Cruz campaign issued a public statement telling voters that Carson didn’t intend to press on with his presidential efforts after Iowa. As a result, anyone voting for Carson or still mulling over the choice should transfer their vote to Cruz instead.
Cruz apologized to Carson the next day, saying that his staffers based their information on a CNN report regarding the retired neurosurgeon’s apparent decision to drop out. Both CNN and Carson rebuked Cruz’s claims, with the network noting that their report suggested no such thing about Carson. Despite the fuss, however, the lateness of the statement meant that it was nearly impossible to determine whether it had a quantifiable effect on the outcome of the Iowa Caucus. Carson therefore accepted Cruz’s apology.
Yet Trump still wasn’t satisfied, either with the lack of action following Cruz’s supposed deception against Carson or his “voting violation” fliers that stirred up equal amounts of disdain among the other Republican candidates.
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
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2016
Not to mention some tacked-on bouts of alleged name-calling.
And finally, Cruz strongly told thousands of caucusgoers (voters) that Trump was strongly in favor of ObamaCare and "choice" – a total lie!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2016
Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 3, 2016
Considering that the states’ presidential primaries are part of the major political parties’ nomination process (and have nothing to do directly with the November elections), the suddenly-careful-speller Trump may want reconsider his choice of words when making demands about the Iowa Caucus. Besides, the New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada primaries are yet to come, and “Super Tuesday” in March will host caucuses for several states on the same day. Iowa is important, sure, but it isn’t the only state Trump should concern himself with at the moment.