Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz called Donald Trump "a pathological liar" in an angry outburst after he claimed that the Texas senator's father associated with Lee Harvey Oswald, former US president John F Kennedy's assassin.
The war of words erupted between the candidates as voters went to the polls in Indiana's crucial Republican primary after Mr Trump (69) alleged in an interview that Rafael Cruz, an immigrant from Cuba, was photographed handing pro-Fidel Castro pamphlets with Oswald in New Orleans in 1963.
The Republican front-runner repeated claims made by the National Enquirer tabloid that Mr Cruz was photographed with Kennedy’s assassin in the months leading up to the president’s assassination on November 22nd, 1963.
“His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald being, you know, shot. I mean the whole thing is ridiculous,” Trump told Fox News.
Mr Trump stopped short of accusing his rival’s father of being involved in the plot to murder Kennedy but his remarks have brought an online conspiracy theory about Mr Cruz’s ties to Oswald into the mainstream.
“I mean, what was he doing – what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting? It’s horrible,” said the property developer turned reality TV star turned presidential candidate.
Verbal assault
Mr Cruz (45), in response, unleashed a verbal assault on the man he is struggling to stop winning the Republican presidential nomination during a campaign stop in
Evansville
,
Indiana
, a must-win state for the Texan.
The first-term senator called the billionaire “a bully”, “utterly amoral” and “a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country has ever seen.”
“Donald Trump alleges that my Dad was involved in assassinating JFK. Now let’s be clear: this is nuts, this is not a reasonable position, this is just kooky,” he said.
Mr Cruz described the National Enquirer as "tabloid trash," pointing out that the tabloid was a supporter of Mr Trump's and had written a "hit piece" on him previously.
The conservative senator went on to launch a deeply personal attack on Mr Trump.
“This man is a pathological liar. He doesn’t know the difference between truth and lies,” the Texan senator told reporters.
Extending his verbal onslaught on the businessman, Mr Cruz said that Mr Trump has a "real problem with women" and said that the billionaire had defended boxer Mike Tyson, who was convicted in Indiana on rape charges.
Referring to an interview Mr Trump gave to shock jock Howard Stern on his show in 1997, Mr Cruz said that the businessman was "proud of being a serial philanderer" and described "his own battles with venereal diseases as his own personal Vietnam. "
‘Ridiculous outburst’
Reacting to Mr Cruz’s remarks, Trump described his opponent in a statement as a “desperate candidate trying to save his failing campaign” and said that his “ridiculous outburst” proved that he didn’t have the temperament to be president.
“Over the last week, I have watched ‘Lyin’ Ted’ become more and more unhinged as he is unable to react under the pressure and stress of losing, in cases by landslides, the last six primary elections – in fact, coming in last place in all but one of them,” he said.
This is not the first time the Cruz camp has had to respond to a popular internet meme.
Heidi Cruz, during a campaign event in Carmel, Indiana on Monday, described an online joke that her husband was the infamous "Zodiac Killer" behind a string of unsolved murders in California in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as "a lot of garbage."
Mr Cruz was born in December 1970.
