Trump, Cruz in war of words ahead of South Carolina primary

Columbia (South Carolina), February 12

Donald Trump maintained a massive lead over his nearest rival Ted Cruz in the crucial South Carolina Republican primary, according to latest polls, as the war of words between the two presidential hopefuls escalated.

Trump took the Twitter to describe Cruz as a liar, even as latest polls showed that he had a massive lead over all other Republican presidential rivals.

According to an Opinion Savvy poll conducted for The Augusta Chronicle, Morris News and FOX 5 Atlanta, Trump has support of 36 per cent of the Republican primary goers, while 19 per cent support Cruz and 15 per cent back the Florida Senator Marco Rubio.

Cruz had won the Iowa caucus while Rubio was positioned third.

This week's New Hampshire primary was won by Trump with a massive margin, while Governor John Kasich of Ohio came in second, followed by Cruz and the former Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

"Trump carries every age group except for the youngest (18-29) where Rubio nudges Trump out by 7 points," said Matt Towery Sr, a political analyst and pollster.

Ever since the campaign has entered South Carolina, the war of words between 69-year-old Trump and Cruz has escalated.

In the last 24 hours, Trump has tweeted five times to drive home the argument that Cruz is not truthful.

It started yesterday, when Trump alleged that Cruz is making 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!" Trump tweeted.

Cruz flatly denied the allegations.

"I have no idea. We had nothing to do with them. I don't know what they were. We had nothing to do with them. So I had read reports of what is being said but somebody else is doing them, not us," he said.

“Ted Cruz is the definition of sleaze" a tweet that was retweeted by Trump said.

"Cruz caught cold in lie after denial of push polls...How can he preach Christian values?" the real estate said in another tweet.

This morning Trump again tweeted, saying, "Lying Cruz put out a statement, 'Trump & Rubio are with Obama on gay marriage. Cruz is the worst liar, crazy or very dishonest. Perhaps all 3?" he said.

"How can Ted Cruz be an Evangelical Christian when he lies so much and is so dishonest?" he said in another tweet.

Trump and Cruz are battling for evangelical voters in the South Carolina primary to be held on February 20. — PTI