Trump boycotts Iowa debate, holds rally for vets down the road
Donald Trump has dominated the polls, the headlines and the conversation for the last seven months.
But he opted not to show at the GOP Debate in Des Moines, just four nights before the Iowa caucus.
Instead, he held a rally for veterans only miles from the debate stage.
“Look at all the cameras, this is like the Academy Awards,” Trump said at the rally.
In Colorado Springs, active Democrat, Judi Ingelido and undecided Republican, Iraq War Veteran Josh Hosler flipped between the debate and tuning into Trump.
“I think Trump taps into veterans frustrations of the VA, of politics over action,” Hosler said.
“He’s just such an insincere person,” Ingelido said of Trump. “I mean, to all of a sudden have a big event for the vets, if he was really concerned about the vets. why wasn’t he doing something sooner?”
Locked in a neck-and-neck battle in Iowa, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz invoked his closest rival.
“I’m a maniac, and everyone on this stage is stupid fat and ugly. And Ben you’re a terrible surgeon. Now, that we’ve gotten the Donald Trump portion out of the way…” Cruz joked.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio took his own shot at the GOP frontrunner by defining how he views this fight.
“It’s not about Donald Trump, he’s an entertaining guy, he’s the greatest show on Earth,” Rubio said. “This campaign is about a president who has systematically destroyed many of the things that made America special. Barack Obama wants to change America. Barack Obama wants America to be more like the rest of the world. We don’t want to be more like
Trump stood firm on his decision to raise money for veterans and admitted to Iowa caucus-goers that strategy may be risky.
“It is for me personally, a good thing, a bad thing, will I get more votes or less votes? Who the hell knows?,” Trump said.
The GOP frontrunner said his campaign’s rally raised about $5 million for veterans.
