Donald Trump on Friday launched a new attack against Ted Cruz, claiming the Texas senator might be influenced the more by special interests groups than any other candidate in the Republican presidential field.
“Every one of them is controlled by big groups and big people, but Cruz is totally controlled by the oil companies,” Trump said during a campaign rally in Myrtle Beach, S.C. “You know, one thing good about this system is it’s reasonably transparent
He continued, accusing his Republican rival of falsely “trying to act like he’s independent.”
“Oh he’s the least independent maybe up there. There’s no independence,” Trump charged. “He tells people that, ‘I’m going to help you with Wall Street — big, bad Wall Street,’ and then he borrowed $1 million with a personal guarantee at a low interest rate — a rate that you would be very proud to pay.”
“He’s got like a two-page filing,” Trump said of Cruz’s financial disclosure records. The real estate mogul boasted that he has “almost 100 pages.”
“He’s got this little tiny filing [and] he forgets to mention that he’s borrowed money from Citi Bank, Goldman Sachs and the rate of interest is like Rockefeller in his prime would have to pay,” he added. “[Cruz] says he’s never going to borrow from Wall Street, but he lied. This guy, I’ve never seen a guy lie like this.”
Trump, continuing what amounted to a five-minute rant against Cruz, also claimed that top-level employees at Goldman Sachs have told him the investment bank has “total control over [Cruz].”
“But they have no control over Donald Trump. I don’t want their money, I don’t need their money,” he noted.
Trump’s attack is the latest version of him blasting Cruz as a dishonest presidential contender. The brash businessman has pushed that narrative for weeks now, ever since Cruz won the Iowa caucuses, and has recently applauded Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for joining the choir so to speak.
All three GOP candidates — Trump, Cruz and Rubio — have been hammering away at each other in the final hours before the first-in-the-South primary in South Carolina on Saturday.
Trump is currently first in the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings, with Cruz and Rubio at second and third place, respectively.
