Ted Cruz called Republican front-runner Donald Trump “a sniveling coward” Thursday in the latest escalation of a war of words over Trump’s ridicule of Cruz’s wife.
“It’s not easy to tick me off,” the Texas senator and GOP presidential candidate told reporters. “I don’t get angry often. But you mess with my wife, you mess with my kids, that’ll do it every time.”
“Donald,” a visibly angry Cruz continued, “you’re a sniveling coward, leave Heidi the hell alone.”
This began after a super PAC ran targeted ads featuring a nude Melania Trump from her career as a model, asking if she looked like a future first lady.
Trump took to Twitter to blame Cruz for the ads and threaten cryptically to “spill the beans” about his wife Heidi.
Cruz has disavowed the ad, which was done by the anti-Trump Make American Awesome PAC rather than the Texan’s presidential campaign. The group was hoping to encourage votes for Cruz in the Utah caucus, but only because he was best positioned to deny delegates to Trump.
Trump nevertheless retweeted a picture unfavorably contrasting Heidi Cruz’s physical appearance with Melania Trump’s.
Since then, Cruz has stepped up his attacks against Trump and in defense of his wife. The billionaire’s numbers with women and in head-to-head matchups with Hillary Clinton appear to be slipping, while at least one poll showed Cruz gaining in Wisconsin, the next primary, before this controversy broke.
