Donald Trump has been saying for months that he thinks Ted Cruz is a "nice guy," but after Thursday night's debate, he's not so sure about that anymore.
"He came at me inappropriately," the GOP presidential front-runner told
MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program Friday morning during a live interview from "Java Joe's" in Des Moines, Iowa, after protesters briefly interrupted his appearance.
"He's got a problem and he's got to straighten out the problem."
Trump continued that the Texas senator had "a couple of suits filed against him running, which is exactly what I've been saying."
The two candidates Thursday night clashed on both the issue of Cruz' Canadian birthplace and on statements Cruz had made against Trump's "New York values," and on Friday, Trump acknowledged that Cruz is a "good debater, but very strident."
While Trump said he'd be concerned about Cruz facing legal challenges over his birthplace, Cruz responded that under some circumstances, Trump could face questions, as his own
mother had come to the United States from Scotland.
"I don't know that he's a nice guy," said Trump, but he pointed out that he "checked the online polls and they have 200,000 or 300,00 people calling in and "I won every one of them. I'm happy about that."
Further, Trump said, "I thought Ted did not have a good night last night, and I thought his hit on New York was disgraceful . . . a lot of people are hitting him for what he said about New York. I thought it was terrible. You know you have offended about 20 million people and that's a lot of people."
Trump continued that Americans have embraced New York after the 9/11 attacks, and defended his hometown city.
"When you think about it, think about the firemen who run up the stairs and come in from Queens. And the tunnel, going 100 miles an hour and going up to save people," said Trump.
While they knew "the building has a big chance of coming down and the policemen and all these guys are going up and all the medical care running up the building. Those people say they're not coming down. This was an amazing thing."
Trump at one time had said
he'd consider Cruz as as a running mate, but that appears to be over as well.
"He's not doing that well in South Carolina or nationally. What bothered me was when he lied. He said 'I've done well in the polls' and he hasn't," said Trump. "In fact, the poll that just came out he saw was NBC Wall Street Journal and the headline was Trump goes way up and Cruz goes way down."
But at this time, Trump said he doesn't want to think about a vice-president, but to "win first and then we can think about that." Further, he said he does not believe there will a brokered convention that would fight back against his nomination.
Trump also spoke on numerous issues in the live morning interview, including Tuesday's capture of 10 sailors by Iran's Revolutionary Guard.
"The only reason they're home is because we owed them $150 billion due in three days. Nobody ever mentions this," he said. "What about the other four prisoners they have there? We have forgotten about them. The minister, the reporter from The Washington Post. What about the four people there right now?"
Trump said if it were him, he would not be paying Iran the money promised in the deal, and would have said it was broken with "the way they treated our young sailors . . . they're sitting on their knees in a begging position with hands up and guns at the back of their head and we're suppose to say they treated us nicely."
On other topics:
- Winning states: "I'm going to win states they've never thought of winning. I have a chance of winning New York state. We're going to win West Virginia big and win Virginia and win places . . . nobody else is going to win. We're going to win New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio. We're going to win places that a lot of people aren't going to win. We're going to have the largest turnout in the history of the country. Most of those people have never voted before because they're tired of being run and lead by stupid people."
- Crowd sizes: "Something has hit the heart. It's like a love fest. Pensacola sent away 7,000 people."
- Jobs: "People look for a job and give up and now they're considered employed. It's a phony number, a number meant for politicians to make them look good. When you say 5.2 percent in this country, there's no way. If it was that number, I wouldn't have 35,000 people coming to rallies. Believe me. They would not be coming."
- Mexico: "The leaders of Mexico are cunning. They're more cunning than our leaders and taking advantage. Companies are moving. Nabisco just left moving their big plant to Mexico. Everybody's going to Mexico. We're losing so much."
- National spirit: "We need spirit . . . people love this country, but they don't have a cheerleader. I thought [Barack Obama] would be a great cheerleader. I never thought he was going to be a good president. I thought he would be a good cheerleader. He's a divider. He's not a cheerleader, he's a divider."
- Bill Clinton's history: "I hate to do it. She made one statement about me and I hate to bring that up. I can't believe he's having a great time on the trail. You look at their life and all of the problems together with Whitewater and one problem after another . . . I'm saying he's got difficulties and problems and if they want to play the dirty card — and I don't think they will — but if they want to, they've got a lot of problems. There are those who said she's an enabler. I don't want to get into it too much . . . I want to put people back to work and bring spirit back to the country."
- Background checks and gun control: "You can't touch the Second Amendment. We have so many checks and balances. You take a look at Paris and California recently with the 14 people killed. If there were guns in that room, you wouldn't had 130 people killed in Paris. You wouldn't have had 14 people killed in Los Angeles . . . you have a lot of background checks now. The government doesn't use them."
- Infrastructure: We're spending trillions of dollars in the Middle East, the whole thing is just like a total disaster . . . infrastructure is important, transportation, all that — schools, bridges, tunnels, roads. You look at these roads and highways with the horrible railings. You know the stuff that warps. Somebody is the greatest salesman in the country. This guy, I want to find out who he is. He has to be so wealthy. It's such garbage."