As Ted Cruz cocked a snook at Donald Trump by sweeping Colorado and winning all its 37 delegates without any votes being cast, the New York billionaire erupted in anger and his newly-appointed top aide accused the Texas Senator of using “Gestapo tactics” to walk away with the delegates.
But the Cruz campaign that has all along boasted of a superior organisation with its mastery of rules and ground management techniques brushed aside the accusations even as it savoured the victory that casts further doubts on Trump’s ability to win 1,237 delegates to clinch the nomination.
Cruz himself termed the Colorado win “another resounding victory for conservatives”, asserting: “Republicans are uniting behind our campaign because they want a leader with real solutions who will bring back jobs, freedom, and security.”
Trump went ballistic on Twitter as soon as news came that Cruz has won all the 37 delegates from Colorado.
“The people of Colorado had their vote taken away from them by the phony politicians. Biggest story in politics. This will not be allowed,”
Trump exploded in a series of tweets. “How is it possible that the people of the great State of Colorado never got to vote in the Republican PrimaryIJ Great anger — totally unfair!”
The State Republican Party, it turns out, had decided last August that it would not have the traditional style of voting in a nominating contest, but decide the distribution of delegates by holding a series of conventions. The Cruz campaign “worked quietly behind the scenes” and “capitalized on the Trump campaign’s failure to adapt to the system”, commented the Denver Post.
In a comment that is sure to have added insult to Trump’s injury, Cruz said: “This has been a remarkable year. I will say this, it hasn’t been boring.”
Sure enough, Trump, speaking to Fox News, complained: “The people out there are going crazy, in the Denver area and Colorado itself. They’re going absolutely crazy because they weren’t given a vote. This was given by politicians – it’s a crooked deal.”
He accused Cruz of trying to “steal” delegates in South Carolina as well – a State which he had won comfortably, with Cruz coming in third. Alleging that the Cruz campaign was “trying to pick off those delegates one by one”, he told the network: “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…It’s a rigged system.”
Trump’s overriding focus now is on the April 19 contest in his home State of New York with 95 delegates up for grabs, followed a week later by four other North-Eastern States regarded as relatively friendly to the front-runner: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware and Rhode Island.