Donald Trump appears to be testing out a new campaign slogan: “Make Iowa Caucus Again.” Less than 48 hours after delivering a surprisingly gracious concession speech to Ted Cruz, the Donald accused the Texas senator of “stealing” Monday’s election.
Trump then elaborated on his secretly Canadian foe’s shifty doings.
Both of Trump’s accusations are basically true and entirely irrelevant to Monday’s outcome.
The Cruz campaign did put out a press release suggesting Carson had dropped out of the race. But in the sociopathic senator’s defense, many thought the good doctor was calling it quits that night. The perpetually sedated Egyptologist has been a nonentity for months. And on the night of the caucus, Carson announced that he would be forgoing campaign events in New Hampshire the next day — so he could fly home to pick up a change of clothes. If Dr. Carson no longer has the funds for a trip to the Brooks Brothers in Des Moines — where there’s even a sale today — it’s not unreasonable to think the end of his campaign is nigh.
Cruz also did send out mailers designed to shame unlikely voters into caucusing for him. But there’s reason to doubt the efficacy of this tactic, and even if everyone who received a mailer turned out for Cruz, Monday’s result would have been the same. According to Bloomberg, roughly 3,000 unlikely voters received the mailer — Cruz defeated Trump by more than 6,000 votes.
Trump went on to argue that telling voters about his past statements on universal health care and abortion was tantamount to fraud.
The Washington Post’s Philip Bump notes that Trump originally accused Cruz of “illegally” stealing Monday’s election, in his latest tweet storm’s opening salvo.
Of course, if lying for political gain were a crime, Trump would be tweeting from a gaudily decorated Rikers cell.
