Ted Cruz basically dares Donald Trump to sue him

Longstanding GOP front-runner Donald Trump has fallen behind rival Ted Cruz in a new national poll. In a hypothetical one on one, Cruz would beat Trump 56 to 40 percent, and Rubio would beat Trump 57 to 41 percent.

Matheson said Lee “would obviously be happy with either of them in the White House” and will “focus on the need for conservatives to come together around an agenda” at separate events for Rubio and Cruz Thursday.

Saturday’s primary could be the last shot for a mainstream GOP candidate to break out, preventing the nomination of an anti-establishment candidate – Trump, who won New Hampshire, or Cruz, who won Iowa.

“If Donald Trump becomes president, the Second Amendment will be written out of the Constitution, because it is abundantly clear that Donald Trump is not a conservative”, Cruz told ABC News on Sunday, the morning after a GOP debate in Greenville.

Two days before South Carolina’s crucial Republican primary, Trump paces the field at 35%, followed by Cruz’s 19% and Rubio’s 15%, in a Poll of Polls averaging the four most recent surveys of likely Republican primary voters spanning February 10-17.

Cruz’s campaign once again denied responsibility for the posting Tuesday. “And I’ll address them”, Rubio said. Rubio and Cruz, who are trailing Trump in the polls there, have been slamming each other.

And Bush, like Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, is “tied to the past with ideas from the past”, supporting Common Core and bank bailouts, other ads say.

Rubio media adviser Todd Harris said on Twitter that Cruz was “unhinged and unpresidential”.

Rubio also is counting on a boost from the support of Gowdy of Spartanburg – popular because of his role in investigating the Benghazi attacks – and U.S. Sen. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich continue to battle for a spot at the table, while retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson struggles for relevancy. Bernie Sanders face off in the Nevada caucuses on Saturday, and the SC primary for them is on February 27.

And on the Florida senator, Cruz said, “Marco Rubio is behaving like Donald Trump with a smile”.

Rubio hit Cruz for “disturbing” behavior on the campaign trail, saying that his Senate colleague has mischaracterized his record.

“I probably would take the opportunity to nominate someone”, Carson said, striking a different stance than Republicans who have said the next president should nominate a candidate. He accused Cruz supporters of creating a fake Facebook page wrongly claiming that South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy had switched his endorsement from the Florida senator to Cruz.

The results are a major change from last month’s NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, when Trump held a 13-point lead over Cruz, 33% to 20%.

A Trump win in SC would be huge for the billionaire developer and TV-reality star, Buchanan said.