Rivals assail Cruz’s ‘tainted’ victory

Donald Trump took to Twitter and Ben Carson to the Bible on Wednesday to assail the rival Ted Cruz camp for using underhanded tactics to secure victory in this week's Iowa caucuses.

Trump asked for an Iowa do-over, or at least to have the results nullified.

Carson, in a cryptic news conference, made a biblical reference to Matthew 7 and to judge others 'by their fruit, not just the words they say” - a day after Cruz had apologized to him for the caucus-night tactics.

Tensions between the Carson and Cruz campaigns have simmered since Monday night's GOP caucuses when reports emerged, as voters filed into their precincts, that Carson would be leaving the campaign trail the following day to return home to Florida.

Many interpreted it as a sign he would drop out of the race entirely, which Carson's team strongly denied.

But on the ground, Cruz staffers at several precincts reportedly began telling voters about Carson's departure - potentially discouraging them from voting for Carson on the assumption that their votes would be wasted.

The rumor of Carson's imminent departure spread widely before the campaign could contain it. U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, a prominent conservative figure and a Cruz supporter, at one point tweeted: 'Carson looks like he is out. Iowans need to know before they vote. Most will go to Cruz, I hope.”

Although Iowa strategists long predicted that Carson's campaign did not have the organic support or campaign infrastructure to pull off a victory in the state, the campaign believed he could finish in the top three and ride the momentum into the next nominating contests.

In Monday night's Republican caucuses, Cruz finished first with 28 percent, Trump second with 24 percent and Florida Sen. Marco Rubio third with 23 percent, Carson finished fourth at 9 percent.

Carson and his campaign lashed out at Cruz after the victory, calling it 'tainted.”

The retired doctor later said that Cruz told him he had not known about the campaign's actions. And after initially downplaying the criticism, Cruz publicly apologized to Carson.

'He is a wonderful and talented individual, and I've thoroughly enjoyed our time together on the campaign trail,” Cruz said in a statement to the Washington Post. 'What the team then should have done was send around the follow-up statement from the Carson campaign clarifying that he was indeed staying in the race when that came out.”

Carson accepted Cruz's apology, but continued to disparage the actions.

'These ‘dirty tricks' political tactics are part of the reason Dr. Carson got into this race and reflect the ‘Washington values' of win at all cost - regardless of the damage to the country - which he is trying to change,” his campaign said in a statement. 'This incident further demonstrates that we need an individual who is not a politician to lead and to heal our nation, not someone driven by ambition.”

Trump Wednesday lit up Twitter with a series of posts saying the outcome was flawed because the Cruz campaign had deliberately spread misinformation both about Carson and about Trump's stand on the Affordable Care Act.

Trump had gone into Monday's caucuses ahead of the Texas senator by 5 percentage points in a key poll, but Cruz ended up winning 4 points ahead of the New York billionaire.

'Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa, he stole it,” Trump tweeted. 'That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!”

He said Cruz had committed 'fraud” to win the contest. In an interview with Boston Herald Radio, he said he would 'probably” file a lawsuit challenging the vote.

Cruz responded Wednesday to Trump's Twitter rant.

'Yet another #Trumpertantrum,” Cruz wrote in a retweet of a Trump post.

The Republican Party of Iowa declined to comment on the assertion of fraud.

On Wednesday - after his campaign had already decried the 'dirty tricks” - Carson summoned reporters to a more understated news conference with an announcement citing Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. The biblical reference about judging others seemed aimed at Cruz, but Carson would not directly say so.

'It's clear that there were people who tried to take advantage of a situation,” Carson said. 'Sen. Cruz told me that he was not aware of that when I talked with him. ... We'll wait and see what he does to demonstrate that.”

The Washington Post, Reuters, the Tribune Washington Bureau and James Q. Lynch of The Gazette contributed to this report.