Donald Trump is riding high in New Hampshire, but he’s not about to pull any punches against Ted Cruz just two weeks out from the primary.
At a campaign rally at Farmington High School Monday night, the Republican presidential front-runner launched into a multi-pronged attack on the Texas senator, on everything from the Texas senator’s eligibility to be president and his ties to Wall Street banks.
“My new battle is with a gentleman named Ted Cruz,” Trump said, labeling the senator a “Canadian” and warning the room that Cruz would be vulnerable to lawsuits. “He was born in Canada, on Canadian soil.”
As he discussed the issue of eminent domain and the Keystone XL Pipeline, Trump drew laughter from the gymnasium when he joked that the pipeline extended from Canada to Texas.
“That pipeline goes from Canada, the birthplace of Ted Cruz … all the way to Texas,” Trump said. “Maybe there’s a conflict of interest!”
The real estate developer also went after his closest rival for failing to properly disclose loans he had received from Goldman Sachs and Citibank for his 2012 Senate campaign.
“He’s Robin Hood. He’s Mr. Robin Hood and he’s going to protect you from the horrible Wall Street bankers,” Trump mocked. “Goldman Sachs has him. And Citi has him.”
Besides taking aim at Cruz, Trump touted his private sector experience.
Pointing to Medicare, the businessman said the government spends too much money on prescriptions because they don’t “bid out” the contracts, thanks to the influence of pharmaceutical lobbyists.
“They say like $300 billion could be saved if we bid them out. We don’t do it. Why? Because they’re drug companies, folks,” Trump said. “We have so many instances like that. That’s one instance. Hundreds of billions of dollars, we don’t bid it out. We bid it out in Trump, but we don’t bid it out with politicians cause they don’t even know what it means to bid out.”
A recent spate of surveys have shown Trump enjoying significant leads over Cruz in New Hampshire. A CNN/WMUR poll last week gave Trump with a 20-point lead over Cruz — 34% to 14%.
Trump kicked off his speech Monday by boasting about his latest poll numbers — but signaled to his supporters that he’s not taking anything for granted.
“These polls have gone so crazy and so positive that I hate to tell it to you because I want you to go out,” Trump said, pleading with the crowd to get out and vote on February 9. “You’ve gotta go out.”