A new poll ahead of the winner-take-all vote Tuesday put the Republican frontrunner far ahead of Ted Cruz. (File photo)
Donald Trump hit out hard at Hillary Clinton and Ted Cruz on Sunday, sounding unapologetic two days ahead of a key primary in Indiana he says will decide the Republican presidential race.
A new poll ahead of the winner-take-all vote Tuesday put the Republican frontrunner far ahead of Cruz, who is hoping the Midwestern state will act as a Trump firewall.
Speaking on "Fox News Sunday," Trump concentrated on attacking Clinton, doubling down on his much-criticized statement that the likely Democratic nominee's only appeal to voters is the "woman's card."
"She's done a lousy job in so many ways and even women don't like her," he said. "But it is the woman's card and she plays it and I will let you know in about six months whether or not she plays it well, but I don't think she'll play it well."
"If she were not a woman, she wouldn't even be in this race," he added.
Clinton dismissed his comments on CNN.
"I have a lot of experience dealing with men who sometimes get off the reservation in the way they behave and how they speak," she said, going on to criticize a talk Trump gave this week, billed as his first major foreign policy speech.
"I found it disturbing," she said.
Trump on Sunday also targeted Cruz, dismissing his closest Republican rival's criticism of Trump's endorsement by former boxing champion Mike Tyson, whom Cruz called a rapist.
'A real liar'"No big deal, I didn't have a meeting or anything, I haven't seen Mike in years," the real-estate billionaire said on Fox.
"This guy is a real liar," he added of the conservative US senator from Texas. "That's why we call him lyin' Ted Cruz."
Trump dismissed Cruz's endorsement by Indiana Governor Mike Pence this week, calling it "the weakest endorsement anyone has seen in a long time."
"I think he gave me more of an endorsement than he gave Cruz," he added.
Asked whether a victory for Trump in Indiana on Tuesday would clinch the nomination for him, Trump said, "Yes, it's over," adding, "I think it's over now."
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll released on Sunday gave Trump a 15 point lead in Indiana.
Although Trump has beamed with confidence at his Indiana rallies, the GOP battle is going down to the wire.
The debate over Trump is focused on whether he can win a majority of the 2,472 delegates who choose the nominee at the Republican convention in July.
Should he reach the magic number of 1,237, the nomination is his because nearly all delegates are bound to vote for their candidate in the first round.
If Trump falls short before the convention, Cruz hopes to snatch the nomination on a second ballot when most delegates become free to vote for whomever they choose.
Speaking on ABC's "This Week," Cruz dismissed host Martha Raddatz's contention that it is "mathematically impossible" for him to clinch the nomination in the first ballot.
"If you take it to the second ballot, it could be perceived as a steal," she added.
"Nobody's going to clinch it on the first ballot," Cruz said. "It's why Donald Trump is so desperate to say the race is over now."
Cruz fired back at Trump, saying on CBS's "Face the Nation" that the tycoon "is attempting to perpetuate one of the greatest frauds in the history of modern elections, which is he is trying to convince people that he's some sort of outsider."
"Donald and Hillary are really flip sides of the same coin," he added. "If we end up in the general election having two candidates on the ballot who are both big government, rich New York liberals, we will have profoundly failed this country."
Cruz, who evaded questions about whether he would bow out of the Republican contest if he loses in Indiana, also dismissed former Republican House speaker John Boehner's criticism of him this week as "Lucifer in the flesh."
"I kind of wondered if Boehner was auditioning to be Donald Trump's vice president," he said. "A Trump-Boehner ticket would really say the Washington cartel in all its force."
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)