Posted on 02/03/2016 1:06:31 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Cruz’ campaign put out an e-mail shortly after - and a flyer - that specifically stated Dr. Carson was leaving the race , and that the precinct captains should sway Carson supporters to vote for Ted Cruz, so as not to waste their vote ... Again, watch the video linked at post 50 - all the evidence is there.
“Political speech is the most protected speech under the Constitution.”
True - but voter fraud is not.
You can go ahead and place any value you'd like on a campaign staff member....who have also been known to defect to another candidate......so no I do not hold a candidate responsible in a campaign run. An no I do not hold Cruz responsible for his staff as if this was a Cabinet position.....not even close.....it's a campaign run and that's all it is. It's not as though he's been sworn in or accountable to us in any way...it's HIS campaign to do with as he wants and I give hi lots of room for good work bad work and anything in between.....for the win!
You see I do trust Cruz on the issues he's stood for and I chose him based on those positions.....not on who are how he manages....of which he wouldn't be where he is today were he not doing a lot of things right.
And what exactly in this scenario could possibly be construed as voter fraud? Telling someone something you reasonably believe to be true?
I've worked those positions and all sorts of shenanigans happen ..you' be surprised. I actually had a news journalist take a photo of me persuading a voter and celebrating that he changed, but the shot was taken clear over from a parking lot ....I never saw him take the photo....til it hit the front page the next day.
It was used at a time you had to be so many feet away from the voting stations....a good thing I was "legal".
I agree, more or less - this is Carson’s fight, and Trump should keep out of it ... OTOH, if Carson lost a sufficient number of support b/c of this action - and those votes went to Cruz, it is possible that either the percentages for Trump and Cruz would have been much tighter - or that Trump may actually have squeaked ahead of Cruz ... In that context, Trump does have an argument.
I’m not stating that Trump would have won if not for this dirty trick, but I am suggesting that Trump does have standing.
Standing for what? Unless you could prove that the Cruz campaign deliberately fed CNN a false story and then used that false story to deceive the voters, you have no case. The story originated with the Carson campaign. CNN broadcast the story. The Cruz campaign used the story to try to win over voters. Nothing unethical, illegal or immoral about it.
I am sorry , but the “kurfllufil” belongs to Carson.
REally. Really, who the heck on the night of voting announces any freakin’ change in schedule. Let alone...”going home to Florida.”
Give me an eff*&%% break here. What Carson announced to CNN should have waited until after voting. REEEEEEALLY. Who the heck is his campaign manager....they are the ones who screwed up!
Come on! You gotta be kidding! They take a story about a candidate’s taking leave for some R&R - and sin that to “He’s Quitting the race! Don’t waste your vote! Vote for me instead!” ... And you think there was no malice involved? Man, if I ever get indicted for committing fraud, I want you sitting in the jury box!
It’s one thing to persuade another candidate’s supporter to vote for your candidate, based on positions, etc ... BUT it is quite a different matter to allege that the other candidate is quitting the race, when such “fact” is actually not confirmed, at best, and a willful fabrication at worst.
The narrative was neither reasonable nor true - because nothing in CNN’s report made any claim that Carson was “quitting” the race or “suspending” his campaign. There is no “there” there. Cruz’ staff made up their own narrative to accomplish their goal - the ends justifies the means. Cruz’ staff had 2 hours, from the initial CNN report (4 PM), to vet the story. They chose not to do so, and rather instructed their precinct captains to run a false narrative in every caucus location. This is really black and white. CNN did not report what Cruz’ staffers stated to Carson supporters.
Ted Cruz referred to the CNN reports at 0:50 of the video ( TRUE — CNN DID REPORT THAT)
This of course was not true but picked up by Ted Cruz supporters.
According to talking points memo...
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/cruz-carson-dirty-tricks-iowa-caucuses-timeline
7:45 p.m.: CNN reports Carson is taking a break after Iowa
During CNN’s wall-to-wall coverage of the Iowa caucuses, Dana Bash shared breaking news from reporter Chris Moody that Carson would return home to Florida after the contest.
“Ben Carson is going to go back to Florida, to his home, regardless of how he does tonight here in Iowa. He’s going to go there for several days, and then afterwards, he’s not going to go to South Carolina, he’s not going to go to New Hampshire, he’s going to come to Washington D.C., and he’s going to do that because the National Prayer Breakfast is on Thursday,” she said.
After the #IAcaucus, @RealBenCarson plans to take a break from campaigning https://t.co/2sMsS7rlRk https://t.co/dVGpik7gNN
— CNN (@CNN) February 2, 2016
CNN’s Jake Tapper called the announcement from Carson “very unusual” and noted “almost every single candidate” would travel directly to New Hampshire after the caucuses.
“If you want to be President of the United States, you don’t go home to Florida,” Bash responded.
On Twitter, @TheLeadCNN told its 32,000 followers that Carson “will return to FL following #IAcaucus, will not go to either NH or SC.” The account for CNN’s politics section tweeted to 420,000 followers that the retired neurosurgeon “plans to take a break from campaigning.”
7:50 p.m.: Carson camp clarifies he just has to go home for “fresh clothes”
Shortly before 8 p.m., a Carson spokesman tweeted the candidate was “not standing down” and was simply returning to Florida to “get fresh clothes” and dodge a winter storm in Iowa. The spokesman told TPM Carson would be in D.C. Wednesday and Thursday for a “campaign event,” and then would continue on to New Hampshire.
The campaign also disputed rumors that Carson’s trip to Florida was a mid-campaign vacation, which many read as a sign he would drop out.
8 p.m.: Cruz camp notifies supporters that Carson is dropping out
Just as the Iowa caucuses were beginning, some users of the Cruz campaign’s official mobile app received a notification saying Carson was dropping out of the presidential race. The notification cited a report from CNN.
So, it all started from CNN and was picked up by Cruz who CITED CNN.
The Cruz message said : “CNN is reporting that Ben Carson will stop campaigning after Iowa”
Well, how do you take this original take from CNN:
“Ben Carson is going to go back to Florida, to his home, regardless of how he does tonight here in Iowa”?
Even the Video at 1:39 showing Ted Cruz’s official memo saying that Ben Cruz is taking time off from the campaign trail after Iowa is a repeat of the CNN news.
Is that an indicator that he will stop campaigning? We do not know.
The problem was this was repeated and repeated and it got out of hand.
Who for instance is this Dan Gabriel (VIDEO 1:57) and did Cruz tell him to tweet out that Carson was quitting? Is Cruz responsible for every single tweet by his supporters?
The video then proceeds to tell us that this Dan Gabriel is a former CIA operative ( 2:49) who has ties to George Soros.
Now THAT is interesting. I’d like to know more about this angle ...
Questions:
1) Is Cruz in close contact with Dan Gabriel?
2) Did Cruz agree to what Dan Gabriel did?
Let’s explore this angle further.
Since it is alleged that Dan Gabriel has ties to Soros, what is Soros’ interest in Ted Cruz’s campaign?
Let’s answer all the above questions first before we jump into conclusions.
Except what Cruz’ staff reported to Carson supporters was NOT what CNN reported.
The issue is not about what CNN reported, it is that Cruz’ people deliberately falsified, exaggerated, misled, deceived potential Carson supporters into changing their votes.
The video alleges that Dan Gabriel is Ted Cruz’s “adviser”.
I don’t see his name on this list of key staffers:
https://ballotpedia.org/Ted_Cruz_presidential_campaign_key_staff_and_advisors,_2016
Do youhave any more information on this mysterious fellow tied to George Soros?
How is he an “adviser” to Ted Cruz? Did Cruz hire him?
I posted the link to the YOUTUBE video on another thread:
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/3392503/posts
I’d like to see what other FReepers say about this.
have no idea what the deal is with this CIA guy, or George Soros - that stuff hits me as perhaps tinfoil hat territory - but I honestly do not know and have no way of “going there” ...
If you have the time and resources to investigate that angle, then by all means do so.
The fact still remains that what CNN reported and what Cruz’ campaign staffers and precinct captains did with the story are not identical. Whether it “got out of control” is a side issue. The central point is that CNN did not report that Carson was “quitting” the race or “suspending” his campaign. That is the bottom line.
CNN reported one thing, and Cruz’ people decided to create their own narrative, based on a false assumption, which they never verified - and the reason they never verified their assumption is because it was not to their advantage to verify their assumption. It cannot be stated any plainer than that.
I stated nothing about this CIA angle. Reason being that I do not know if such is true - and, moreover, I consider that kind of speculation to rest in the tin foil hat domain.
If this was an honest mistake, WHEN did they realize it and did they have a meeting and decide not to correct the lie?
RE: I stated nothing about this CIA angle.
Let me put it this way — I support Cruz because of what he STOOD for as Senator and Attorney General and because of what he stands for AS STATED in his website and statements.
BUT, if it can be proven that he has WITH MALICIOUS INTENT instead of a excitable mistakes on the part of his supporters, become a party to:
1) The attempt to propagate information he knows to be a lie (instead of simply repeating a CNN report ).
2) This mysterious Dan Gabriel fellow who is allegedly an ex-CIA operative who propagated this lie and then deleted the tweet.
3) George Soros, who allegedly has ties to Dan Gabriel ( with Ted Cruz’s full knowledge ).
Them I will withdraw support from him but not until.
And where was Carson when all this was coming down?.....
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