Donald Trump to Ted Cruz: You stole Iowa

Donald Trump, who gave a gracious concession Monday night after finishing second to Ted Cruz in Iowa, took to Twitter on Tuesday accusing the Texas senator of fraud and calling for the caucus results to be nullified.

Cruz responded in a Tweet by noting that Democrat Bernie Sanders had not conceded in Iowa to Hillary Clinton. “Maybe Donald should go back to IA & join the Ds,” wrote Cruz.

The New York billionaire accused the Cruz campaign of telling GOP caucusgoers before they voted that retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson was dropping out of the race. The false information – for which Cruz apologized to Carson – was based on a CNN report that Carson was not heading to New Hampshire to campaign, as were the other candidates. Carson competed directly with Cruz for the evangelical vote, which made up over half of the GOP caucus results.

Trump also blasted Cruz for a voter mailer that appeared official and listed the recipient’s neighbors, giving all of them a score for voter participation and saying they were in “violation” for not voting. The Iowa secretary of state issued a statement rebuking the Cruz campaign but Cruz said he would not apologize for engaging in tactics to get voters to caucus.

Meanwhile, a prominent Texan, Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban, weighed in on the presidential race on Twitter, as well, saying he was an ABC voter, “anyone but Cruz.”

This story was originally published February 3, 2016 at 11:54 AM with the headline "Donald Trump to Ted Cruz: You stole Iowa."