After a day when he sounded reflective and even chastened by his Iowa loss, Donald Trump went back to war with Iowa winner Ted Cruz on Wednesday and accused him of stealing the election.
“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!” Trump tweeted.
Trump blasted Cruz for “fraud” by pointing to the actions of a top surrogate for Cruz’s campaign who told conservatives on election night that Ben Carson was quitting the race and that they should back Cruz.
Carson didn’t quit the race. His campaign said he flew to Florida to get clean clothes after a long stint on the campaign trail and would then be heading to the next primary in New Hampshire.
“Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified,” Trump tweeted.
“Many people voted for Cruz over Carson because of this Cruz fraud.”
Trump also accused Cruz of sending out a “voter violation” certificate to thousands of voters.
He was referencing a mailer that informed Iowans that their voting record was public and that they could fix poor attendance by voting.
“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,” Trump tweeted.
In an appearance on MSNBC on Wednesday, Trump offered more explanations for why Cruz beat him in Iowa when polls showed the real estate mogul ahead.
“In retrospect, we should have had a better ground game” in Iowa, Trump said.
That directly contradicted what he said two months earlier: “We’ve got such an incredible ground game,” he said in Cedar Rapids on Dec. 19.
“Well, I think we could have used a ground game, a term I wasn’t even familiar with,” Trump said Wednesday. “You know, when you say ‘ground game,’ I say, ‘What the hell is that?’ Now I’m familiar with it.”
Trump, who regularly touts himself as a “winner,” tried to flip the narrative on his runner-up finish in Iowa and cast it as a huge accomplishment.
“I beat a lot of senators, a lot of governors. They do it professionally, I’ve never done this before,” Trump later told the “Today” show.
“It was such a big story that I came in second (and didn’t win). I don’t know why. I was actually semi-satisfied with it.”
A Des Moines Register poll, released Saturday night, showed Trump with a five-point lead over Cruz.