Donald Trump's supporters are uninformed and not engaged in the political process, Republican rival Ted Cruz said.
"Donald does well with voters who have relatively low information, who are not that engaged, and who are angry and they see him as an angry voice," the
Texas senator told CBN News on Wednesday. "Where we are beating him is when voters get more engaged and they get more informed.
"When they inform themselves, they realize his record," Cruz continued. "He's what they're angry at.
"He is the corruption — and if you want someone to stand up to Washington, the only one who has been doing so in this race is me."
In his interview in Miami, where the Republicans will debate on Thursday, Cruz cited Trump saying last month that "I love the poorly educated" in his victory speech after the Nevada caucuses.
"He does well with a certain demographic of voter," Cruz told CBN. "Part of it is I think Donald is taking advantage of his voters — because I understand what they're angry about.
"But Donald, if you're angry at the corruption of Washington, you don't solve it by supporting someone who has been enmeshed in the Washington corruption for 40 years."
Cruz's comments brought hostile responses on several fronts, with one Trump supporter, an Army veteran from Chicago,
telling radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh Thursday that "Trump is out there as a leader earning votes.
"Cruz is out there trying to make me feel like I do or don't qualify for his definition of what it means to be a conservative, and at the same time stealing a page from [Limbaugh's] playbook about Democrats calling me, a Republican, dumb.
"Not the way to earn my vote, Ted," the caller said, adding later that "I do think it's insulting to himself if he thinks the way to win the election is to insult right now what is the largest base in the Republican Party."
Sarah Palin, the Trump supporter and 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate, also slammed Cruz,
saying Thursday on Facebook: "Ted Cruz's insinuation reeks of all the reasons America knows 'the status quo has got to go.'
"The arrogance of career politicians is something at which the rest of us chuckle, but Cruz's latest dig strays from humorous into downright nasty."
Palin added, however that "Cruz is right" — because "independent, America-first, common-sense conservatives supporting Donald Trump are 'low information' when it comes to having any information on Cruz's ability to expand the conservative movement, beat Hillary Clinton, unify and lead the nation."
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