Cruz On Carson's 'Dirty Trick' Claim: I'm Not Gonna Scapegoat My Staff

TPM ^ | February 3, 2016 | CAITLIN MACNEAL

[GodGunsGuts]

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Wednesday said he would not discipline any campaign staffers for notifying Iowa caucusgoers that Ben Carson had plans to drop out of the race even though the retired neurosurgeon only had plans for a quick trip home to Florida.

Cruz said on "The Mike Gallagher Show" that members of his campaign were "passing on news reports."

"I don't make a practice of scapegoating staff members when it's politically convenient," Cruz added.

The Texas senator reiterated that he has apologized to Carson for his campaign's actions. In a Tuesday statement, Cruz said that while sharing news reports is "fair game," he was sorry his campaign did not send out an update clarifying that Carson would remain in the race. The Cruz campaign circulated a CNN story about Carson's plans to head to Florida following the Iowa caucus, and the campaign allegedly urged caucusgoers to vote for Cruz instead.

On Wednesday, Cruz told Gallagher that the media was reporting on Carson's claims and the Cruz campaign's actions in a "misleading way."

Shortly before Cruz's interview on "The Mike Gallagher Show," Donald Trump accused Cruz of "fraud" and called for "either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified."

In response to Trump's accusations, Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler told CNN that Trump was merely trying to get attention.

"The reality hit the reality TV star in Iowa so nobody is talking about him now. So he's trying to regain some attention on Twitter," he said in a statement to CNN.

Tyler added that "there are Twitter addiction support groups, so he should seek out his local chapter."

[GodGunsGuts]

Unflappable Ted strikes again!

Could this be Donald Trump's final twitter meltdown?

Better start popping the popcorn!

Ted Cruz 2016!!!!

[RummyChick]

NWO probably won’t let him fire his Campaign Chairman

[skeeter]

Anyone who isn’t holding Rubio accountable to the same standard as they are Cruz is a hypocrite with an agenda.

[agrarianlady]

Timeline:

[heights]

Tricky Cruzie

[RitaOK]

THIS will be a first.

Scapegoating, look-over-there, I-didn’t-know, it’s McConnell’s fault, has been his go-to tool.

I’ll take the rich guy, honest to a fault, saying “Guilty, as charged”.

TRUMP 2016

[VanDeKoik]

Unflapple?

He keeps undercutting his fanbous.

First you guys thought it was a brilliant move..then he apologized.

Then you guys said it was just some staff mix-up....now he doesn’t blame the staff.

Soon he will admit that he approved of it...then what??

[McGruff]

That’s mighty white of him.

[GodGunsGuts]

Yep. Nobody wants to talk about the fact that other campaigns came to the same conclusion about Carson as Cruz’s staffers...and they too acted on the information in the exact same way.

[bootless]

This is getting ridiculous. SoreLoserman 2.0.

I see Sanders is contesting the Iowa results - that’s more reasonable, if anyone were to do it. That said, I hope that both he and Hell are knocked out. Isn’t there one (D) who can run so I don’t have to have nightmares about our country’s destruction at their hands?

[Madame Dufarge]

He didn’t know about it until he read it in the paper?

[HoosierWordsmith]

“Could this be Donald Trump’s final twitter meltdown?”

______________________________________________________________________________

The Trump rants this morning remind me of that Saturday morning a few weeks back when Trump had another emotional Twitter breakdown putting out about 20 nasty ant-Cruz tweets over a few hours!

Sorry, the guy has problems!

[A CA Guy]

He was framing for himself what news reports meant in a way that is fraud for his benefit last second in a campaign.
Most Godly to Iowa uses the most unGodly means to an end.

[Yashcheritsiy]

Owning up to the mistakes of those under you is the mark of a leader.

However, having enough oversight and responsibility to not let those under you make this kind of stupid, crooked mistake in the first place is the mark of a GOOD leader.

[BitWielder1]

Cruz' campaign doing once what the MSM's are doing every day.
OMG. Stop the presses.

[GodGunsGuts]

Trump has not problems, according to Trump.

[zerosix]

Popping the corn, I finished three boxes just reading Trump's tweets!

I'm heading out for refills and might even rip open the Fritos, the corn pone's really flowing.

[SeekAndFind]

Let’s say that there was a rumor floating around that Carson was going to quit the race ( regardless of where it came from (CNN was reporting it as well ) ).

I can’t believe that Iowa voters ( and Carson supporters ) are so DUMB that they would not double check to see if this story is true or not before casting their vote. I mean this isn’t the 19th century where there is no internet or cable news.

As a Cruz supporter, I know I’d double check first if I heard news floating around saying that Cruz had quit before casting my vote.

So, to say that Carson’s 4th place showing was CAUSED by the rumor is just that — BALONEY.

Carson just did not have enough supporters in Iowa, rumor or not. PERIOD.

[magglepuss]

Oh, I think Rubio is just as guilty. Looks like him and Cruz working together to take out Trump.

[ExGeeEye]

Sen. Cruz’ campaign did something very bad in Iowa.

They saw a news item on CNN, and they *believed* it!

Don’t *do* that, Cruz campaign staff! Very bad!