Trump erupts as rival Cruz wins in Colorado after ‘buying votes’
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REPUBLICAN presidential frontrunner Donald Trump’s concerns about how delegates are allotted turned into a roar yesterday as he accused campaign rival Ted Cruz of buying votes after his weekend win in Colorado.
The New York billionaire, who has won many state contests for a delegate lead, is confronting Cruz’s strategy of using state party rules to secure more delegates in hopes of winning the nomination at a brokered Republican convention in July.
Cruz’s campaign has worked effectively in states that have a complex delegate allocation process, including Colorado, where the US senator from Texas picked up 34 delegates on Saturday at the state Republican convention.
“The people out there are going crazy, in the Denver area and Colorado itself,” Trump said on Fox News. “They’re going absolutely crazy because they weren’t given a vote. This was given by politicians — it’s a crooked deal.”
Trump’s camp has amplified complaints about the delegate allocation system, which varies from state to state, as the prospect of a contested Republican convention looks more likely to determine the party’s nominee for the November 8 election.
The Cruz campaign did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Trump’s latest allegations but spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told CNN on Sunday: “More sour grapes from Trump who continues to lash out in tantrums every time he loses. We are winning because we’ve put in the hard work to build a superior organization.”
A Republican candidate needs 1,237 delegates to clinch the nomination and avoid a convention floor fight, which could involve several rounds of voting for delegates. Trump has 743 delegates while Cruz has 545, according to an Associated Press count.
Trump yesterday also accused Cruz of trying to steal delegates in South Carolina, a state Trump won in February. Cruz came in third but won three delegates on Saturday at congressional district meetings, according to local media.
“Now they’re trying to pick off those delegates one by one,” Trump said. “That’s not the way democracy is supposed to work. They offer them trips, they offer them all sorts of things and you’re allowed to do that. You can buy all these votes.
“What kind of a system is that? ... It’s a rigged system.”
Trump’s new delegate strategist, Paul Manafort, said on Sunday that the campaign would protest what he called Cruz’s “Gestapo tactics, the scorched-earth tactics” on delegates.
A tweet from the Colorado Republican Party appeared to briefly verify Trump’s fears that state party officials favored Cruz. After Saturday’s results, the party tweeted: “We did it. #Never Trump,” the Denver Post reported.
The party then deleted the tweet, which it said was unauthorized, and said it was investigating.
Colorado Republicans defended their voting process on Twitter yesterday, re-tweeting a post by commentator Ari Armstrong who called the system “representative.”
“Claiming delegates were ‘stolen’ insults the Republicans who participated,” Armstrong wrote.
Meanwhile, Trump is the target of a new ad by Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton that lists his most divisive comments on women, Mexican immigrants and Muslims.
Both Clinton and rival Bernie Sanders have tried to position themselves as the Democrat most capable of defeating Trump. “Donald Trump says we can solve America’s problems by turning against each other,” Clinton’s ad said. “It’s wrong and it goes against everything New York and America stand for.”
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