'Cage Match' Between Trump, Cruz Moves Full Steam Ahead

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- South Carolina's reputation for nasty politics entered a new level this week. In what could be called a cage match, lawyers for Donald Trump sent a cease and desist letter to Sen. Ted Cruz's campaign, saying an ad painting Trump as pro-choice is false.

"Would President Trump ban partial birth abortions?" NBC's Tim Russert asks Trump in the ad. Trump replies, "Well look, I am very pro-choice."

That clip is from almost 20 years ago and Trump says he is now pro-life. He says he's seriously thinking about suing Cruz for not being a natural born American citizen if he doesn't stop the ad.

Unfazed, Cruz says, "bring it on."

"In the annals of frivolous lawsuits, this takes the cake," the Texas lawmaker said.

Trump will be at Regent University for the Presidential Candidate Forums on Wednesday, February 24. We'll be streaming that event LIVE at noon.

The battle here between Cruz and Trump is all about the narrative, with both trying to define the other. Cruz calls Trump a fake conservative and Trump paints Cruz as a big time liar.

In a recent interview with CBN News, Trump lowered the boom on what he calls Cruz's evangelical duplicity.

"He does hold up the Bible. He holds up the Bible nice and high, but he lies and I think the evangelicals have figured it out because I'm leading with evangelicals by a lot," the billionaire said.

"So are you questioning his Christian faith?" CBN's David Brody pressed.

"No, not at all," Trump replied. "I'm just saying you don't hold up the Bible and lie."

The latest South Carolina polls show Trump with a double-digit lead. Among evangelicals that leads grows to almost 20 points.

The Cruz campaign prefers one new poll showing him as the national leader by a couple points. They're focusing on questioning Trump's conservative credentials.

"He supported Barack Obama's TARP bailout of the big banks," Cruz noted. "He supported Obama's stimulus plan."

Trump answers any concern in his own way.

"I'm a common sense conservative," the business mogul told CBN News. "I'm very conservative on certain things. Look, nobody's as conservative as me when it comes to security or the wall or the borders."

And what about social issues? For example, Cruz maintains a long record of defending traditional marriage. Trump hasn't added that to his campaign message.

"There are evangelicals out there that want to be able to trust you on traditional marriage and other issues," Brody said.

"I think they can trust me," Trump replied. "They can trust me on traditional marriage. I was very much in favor of having the court rule that it goes to states and let the states decide."

And what about the landmark 1973 abortion case? Trump says he thinks the Supreme Court got it wrong.

'Well I do. It's been very strongly decided but it can be changed," he said.

While those issues aren't regular parts of his stump speech, Trump does talk about how Christianity is under attack in America.

He says he doesn't agree with a congressional decision back in the 1950s to threaten churches' tax exemption if they endorse or oppose political candidates.

"I want to give power back to the Church because the Church has to have more power. Christianity is really being chopped; little by little it's being taken away," he said.

While Trump and Cruz battle it out, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is having a good week. He picked up the coveted endorsement of popular South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

"I wanted somebody that had conviction to do the right thing," Haley said.

Rubio hopes a strong finish strong could propel him to be the consensus Republican candidate.

Meanwhile, Cruz believes rock-ribbed conservatism will rule the day. And as for Trump, he's hoping his so-called "silent majority" turns up the volume Saturday night.