rhetoric. maeve reston has more. reporter: we are seeing this battle intensify with trump and cruz. both men on the campaign trail this weekend. both in iowa and trump coming to nevada which is one of the key early primary states. donald trump did a very wide ranging speech here in reno. offering a stiff foreign policy critique of obama and clinton. returning to ted cruz. he is coming back to the citizenship issue over and over. talking about uncertainty of the fact that ted cruz was born in canada. although he was born to an american mother. a lot of constitutional scholars say this is not an issue. ted cruz says it should not be an issue for voters. donald trump is really trying to raise questions about cruz s electability here. we have sound from that. ted has to solve his problem. he s got a big problem. the problem isn t me and the problem isn t anybody.
if you look at that poll. but we ll have to see. ted and i are definitely number one and two in iowa. so that s where we are and we re going to see how that and i happen to think that from my standpoint now politically, i should say, if i come in two, three, four, or five in iowa, i wouldn t be. you re going to be unhappy if you lose iowa? i would like to win iowa. i say that with trepidation, because this way if i come in at number two. . but if you look at ted in new hampshire, he s not doing well at all. well, you heard it there with donald trump and ted cruz running neck and neck in iowa. trump is no longer holding his fire against cruz. now iowa s governor, terry branstad is also weighing in on cruz s citizenship issue, saying, quote, when you run for president of the united states, any question is fair game. so let the people decide. senate majority leader mitch mcconnell says the senate won t
escalated the fight. reporter: john and christine, we are seeing this battle intensify with donald trump and ted cruz as cruz surged in the polls in iowa. both men on the campaign trail this weekend. both in iowa and trump coming to nevada. that is a key early primary state. donald trump did a wide ranging speech in reno. offering a stiff foreign policy critique. repeatedly returning to ted cruz. he is coming back to the citizenship issue over and over again. talking about whether there is uncertainty in the fact that ted cruz was born in canada although born to an american mother. a lot of constitutional scholars say this is not an issue. ted cruz says it is not an issue for voters. donald trump is trying to raise questions about cruz s electability here. so ted has to solve his problem. he has a big problem. the problem isn t me and the
trailing senator ted cruz in the crucial early voting state of iowa. cruz leading trump 28-24%, according to the latest numbers today from the nbc/ wall street journal /marist poll. that the same poll buts trump in a better position, well ahead of the competition with 30%. closest competitor, senator marco rubio stands at 14%. maeve reston joins us from trump s rally in reno. he went hard after cruz. and hard after this point of his questioning whether or not cruz is eligible to be president since he was born in canada. he won t let that one up. reporter: well, let it go, poppy. it s interesting here, talking to folks in the crowd. a lot of voters who say that ted cruz would be their second choice. so it s very clear why donald trump is doing this. just a few minutes ago, he talked about citizenship issue
big enthusiastic crowd here. you hear donald trump right now talking about this citizenship issue that he s trying to raise as an issue particularly iowa where ted cruz is surging in polls. and so, is his style or is it content of what he s saying? is it changing at all? you ve been covering him a long time on the campaign trail, seldom uses a script. he kind of talks and talks and talks. i thought that he was going to be taking questions as we get closer to the caucus. is he planning to do that today? he s not. as far as we know, thus far, he s really just talking to the crowd about his poll numbers, about some of his policies, drawing out contrasts with hillary clinton, ted cruz. but right now, he s really trying to rally voters.