Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are taking their bad blood into prime-time at a CNN Republican town hall event.
The increasingly bitter rivals are taking the stage one after the other at the event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, moderated by Anderson Cooper, as a new controversy rocks the White House race after Trump’s campaign manager was charged with simple battery of a reporter.
The development, which prompted prompted fresh criticism of Trump’s campaign, came a week ahead of the Wisconsin primary, which is shaping up as a huge night in the bid by the billionaire’s rivals to deprive him of the GOP nomination.
The real estate developer will likely have to address the fallout of the charge against campaign manager Corey Lewandowski during the town hall meeting, with criticism mounting from opponents on the right and left about the incident.
After the arrest was made public, Cruz charged that there was an “abusive culture” in the Trump campaign.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is also taking part in the town hall, said Lewandowski was innocent until proven guilty but piled pressure on Trump by saying that whenever he discovered improprieties among Ohio government employees, staff were suspended or let go.
The Trump campaign has said Lewandowski is innocent.
The town hall could see Trump, the Republican front-runner, and Cruz escalate their feud, which turned even more personal last week when the real estate mogul took aim at the Texas senator’s wife.
It could also see Kasich looking to further his case that he’s the only adult in the GOP race and, despite having one only one primary to date, the sole remaining Republican who could emerge from a possible contested convention to beat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
Trump took exception to an ad by a super PAC unaffiliated with Cruz featuring a risque picture of his own wife, Melania, a model, and threatened to reveal unspecified information about Heidi Cruz, prompting a furious response from the Texas senator.
Monday night’s town hall is also likely to drill down on Trump’s foreign policy worldview after he gave a series of interviews in which he complained that U.S. allies were not paying enough for defense guarantees and threatened to revisit the arrangements.
Cruz has accused the businessman of wanting to pull out of NATO, called his foreign policy inconsistent and dangerous, and claimed the latter’s election would hand a big victory to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Cruz intensified the confrontation on Monday by demanding that Trump join him on stage to turn the town hall meeting into a full-fledged debate.
“Donald, why don’t you show up and debate like a man? I recognize that Donald prefers to communicate in 140 characters or less,” Cruz said at a campaign stop in Wisconsin.
Trump replied on Twitter: “Lyin’ Ted, I have already beaten you in all debates, and am way ahead of you in votes and delegates. You should focus on jobs & illegal imm!”
Both Kasich and Cruz need a big victory over Trump to secure most if not all of Wisconsin’s 42 Republican delegates next week. They are trying to stop the former reality TV star short of the 1,237 delegates needed to win the nomination outright and open the way to a contested convention.
But the fact that they are both competitive in Wisconsin risks splitting opposition to Trump, allowing him to march on to more favorable contests next month in the Northeast with his large delegate lead untrimmed.
The town hall event is airing on CNN, CNN International and CNN en Español, and is being streamed live online and via CNNgo.