Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump and his two main rivals for the party nomination tore into each other with vicious and personal attacks ahead of Super Tuesday contests in a dozen states.
If Trump called rival Marco Rubio a "choker" and a "little mouthpiece" with "the largest ears I've ever seen" and Ted Cruz "a liar" and a "nasty guy", Rubio made fun of Trump's private plane as "Hair Force One".
Cruz on his part jabbed at Trump and Rubio both while discussing his flat tax plan and pledge to abolish the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the US income tax department.
Recalling a scene backstage at Thursday's Republican presidential debate, Trump told supporters in an airplane hangar in Bentonville, Arkansas, that he thought Rubio "was going down."
"I said, man, I think he's choking," Trump said. "I said I'm about to witness history. This guy's going down. This guy's going down.
"And I'm looking and I'm getting ready because, you know, it's like a lot of people, I'm a pretty strong guy. I'm getting ready to grab him because I thought he was -- I thought he was out."
About 500 miles away in Kennesaw, Georgia, Rubio had a different take on Trump's appearance saying he should sue the makeup man.
"So here's the one tweet he put out: He put out a picture of me having makeup put on me at the debate, which is amazing to me, that a guy with the worst spray tan in America is attacking me for putting on makeup," Rubio said.
"Donald Trump likes to sue people, he should sue whoever did that to his face."
Meanwhile in Perry, Georgia, Cruz said "Both Donald Trump and Marco Rubio want to keep the IRS... all the things that make the lobbyists in Washington get rich.
"Both of them want to keep the massive complexity of the tax code, and I'll tell you what, for whatever reason, Donald Trump doesn't want to show anyone his tax returns," he said.
With Trump leading in all but one of the states going to the polls on Super Tuesday, his two main opponents have finally taken off the gloves to attack him viciously.
But an unfazed Trump quipped Saturday that if he won big on Tuesday, , "Maybe I'll start shopping permanently at Walmart."
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
