TIMELINE: How Cruz's Camp Spun A Ben Carson Hoax During The Iowa Caucuses

TPM ^ | February 3, 2016, 2:12 PM EST | Katherine Krueger

[Red Steel]

Dr. Ben Carson, once a presidential contender leading the GOP polls, found himself swatting away rumors that he planned to drop out of the race in the heat of the Iowa caucuses Monday night.

The rumor was sourced to a single CNN report about Carson's plans to travel home to Florida after the Iowa caucuses - rather than directly to New Hampshire, as is typical - and was spread by Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) campaign. It sparked a full-blown scandal as Carson claimed the Cruz camp's tactics hurt his performance in the caucuses and second-place finisher Donald Trump took up Carson's cause, calling for the election results to thrown out completely over Cruz's "fraud."

Here's a look at how the events unfolded on the night of the Iowa caucuses and the ensuing days (all times EST).

Caucus night

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.

The alert said Carson "will stop campaigning after Iowa" and urged users to tell people at the caucuses “they should coalesce around the true conservative who will be in the race for the long haul: TED CRUZ!"

It also included a photo of a TV tuned to CNN, showing the network's ever-present "BREAKING NEWS" banner paired with the headline "Campaign: Carson To Take A Break After Iowa."

8:20 p.m.: Rep. Steve King feeds the rumor mill

Following the Cruz campaign's lead, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who endorsed Cruz in November, tweeted: "Carson looks like he is out."

Carson looks like he is out. Iowans need to know before they vote. Most will go to Cruz, I hope. https://t.co/lW5Js50EMA

- Steve King (@SteveKingIA) February 2, 2016

He linked to a tweet from CNN reporter Chris Moody, which read Carson "won’t go to NH/SC, but instead will head home to Florida for some R&R. He'll be in DC Thursday for the National Prayer Breakfast."

10:50 p.m.: Carson alludes to unnamed rivals' "dirty tricks" after fourth-place finish

In his Iowa concession speech, which the retired neurosurgeon began before the race was called for Cruz, Carson reiterated that he wasn't "going anywhere." He also bemoaned "dirty tricks" employed in the caucuses, without assigning blame to any other campaign in particular.

The aftermath

Feb. 2: Cruz apologizes after Carson directly accuses him of playing "dirty tricks"

Carson fingered the Cruz campaign as the source of the rumors he was dropping out and said its shady tactics ruined his chances in Iowa during an interview with "Fox and Friends."

"At many of the precincts, the information was disseminated that I was suspending my campaign, that I had dropped out," he said. "And anybody who was planning to vote for me was wasting their vote and therefore they should reconsider."

Carson told Fox News that his wife, Candy, had to set the record straight at one precinct.

"She spoke at one of the caucus sites and before she got there one of the Cruz people had again disseminated that information to the crowd," Carson said. "One of the organizers told her 'I'm so glad you're here, so you could set the record straight.' And she did and we actually won in that precinct."

The Cruz campaign apologized for disseminating the misinformation later in the day, calling the messaging “a mistake from our end.” The campaign conceded in a statement to CNN that it should have followed up with a corrected report about Carson was staying in the race, but argued it was "fair game" for surrogates to disseminate the news that Carson was leaving the campaign trail when it first broke.

For his part, Cruz surrogate Steve King apologized to the Carson campaign for "any miscommunications" during the caucuses.

I respect Ben Carson & regret any miscommunications. Perhaps @RealBenCarson supporters r unaware of this CNN story. https://t.co/RgrljodXl1

- Steve King (@SteveKingIA) February 2, 2016

Feb. 3: Trump accuses Cruz of "fraud," calls for Iowa results to be "nullified"

In a string of tweets posted Wednesday morning, Donald Trump said the Iowa caucus results should be nullified or a new election should be held because of Cruz's alleged "fraud." In one quickly deleted tweet, he said Cruz "illegally stole" his win in Iowa.

The real estate mogul claimed "many people" voted for Cruz instead of Carson because of the campaign's alert that Carson was dropping out. He also criticized the Cruz campaign's "voter violation" mailers, which implied Iowa voters had broken the law.

[patq]

Sounds like Cruz cheated, possibly breaking the law. Before the Iowa results can be considered validated, these irregularities must be investigate fully. If charges are warranted, then so be it.

[petercooper]

The R's are acting like a bunch of toddlers and crybabies. “He called me a name”. “He was mean to me”. “Megyn Kelly is a loser”. “I'm going to sue everybody”. “Could you people please clap for me when I speak”. “I'm compassionate because Daddy was a mailman." “He said I was dropping out, when I know I should drop out, and I should have never been in this race in the first place because I never had a chance to win”. What a spectacle!

[bray]

You think character is lame? We already have one liar in cheat, do we really need another one? He should resign from the race.

Pray America wakes

[justlittleoleme]

Article Link: http://www.redstate.com/leon_h_wolf/2016/02/03/ben-carson-gets-hoisted-petard-isnt-pretty-video/

Reporter: Do you regret, uh, announcing that that you were going to be going back to Florida and spurring some of this confusion?

Carson: Well, I didn’t make that announcement. Uh, I guess somebody talked to … other people…

Reporter: Well, your campaign told the press.

Carson: You know, *I* didn’t say it, so don’t blame me. [laughing]

Reporter: But you’re here telling us that people should know what’s going on in their campaign and hold people accountable, I mean that’s [crosstalk]

Carson: Well, let me ask you this question, is it okay after being on the road for after three weeks to go home to Florida and get a fresh change of clothes? Or is that a problem? Does that make someone into an evil, horrible person?

..... So, to summarize:

Carson admits his own campaign staffer talked to the media and said he was going to Florida.
Carson takes no responsibility for the actions of this staffer.
Cruz staffer tweeted a media report based entirely on what the aforementioned staffer said.
According to Carson, Cruz should take responsibility for that staffer.

---

So Carson knew his campaign leaked this to the press. Then got angry that it snowballed from there.... He is kinda burrying the lead here isn't he.

And going home to get a change of clothes? Is Iowa or New Hampshire so rural that he can't send staff or go himself to buy some more clothes?

[bolobaby]

They also lied about the content of the 8pm memo. Not once did it use the phrase “dropping out.”

[CaptainK]

I like Cruz and donated to him but why was his campaign the only one to misunderstand the CNN report?

[justlittleoleme]

The Rubio camp did as well:

But that isn't getting covered by the media.

Rubio camp also mailed out voter violation mailers.

But that isn't getting covered by the media either.

[miss marmelstein]

Plenty of people care. The timeline is interesting as well as illuminative. Deal with it. Stop spinning for Cruz.

[Red Steel]

Cruz stretched it from going to Florida to get fresh clothes after the Iowa caucus to Carson is getting out of the race is BS.

[CaptainK]

Interesting.
Could it be because Rubio is the MSM chosen one?

[phothus]

Exactly. If Carson supporters should be angry, they should be angry at Carson for his inept campaign. Who puts out something like that on the night of a caucus? Who goes home for clothes and not off to the upcoming primary?

Carson and the consultants he’s hired have burned through a huge amount of cash and have very little value for their spend. They didn’t have the wherewithal and money to halt the decline with Trump beat them about the head with his comments and whining about this now is them whining about a problem they caused themselves.

What really shows this is the fact that while calling for Cruz to fire his staffer, Carson won’t do anything to his own staffer that caused all the trouble in the first place.

[GrouchoTex]

What I saw on CNN real time when it happened, sure sounded like Carson was dropping out. His actions were called “very unusual” by the news team.
To say Cruz any Rubio unethical by forwarding what CNN said doesn’t wash.
Trump, Carson, Cruz, and Rubio, all should be turning their guns on CNN for putting out such a misleading report, not one another.
Instead, Trump and Carson are using this for political gain, and Rubio is not being called out at all, which should tell us something about Trump and Carson and the media.

[justlittleoleme]

Unfortunately yes. It has been terrible this election season.. They all are fawning over Rubio.

Bowling on the Five yesterday did a slip and said “Because Rubio won Iowa” then corrected himself and said he was seen as winning because he came in third place.

Trump they remain mostly neutral (I think that is about to change) they are just doing that for ratings, and to take him at when it is most beneficial to Rubio or Bush

Cruz they either bash or ignore

[mkjessup]

You know it truly amazes me, the behavior of the Cruz fanatics who seek to defend what may very well be indefensible behavior. If there was any sort of vote fraud, it needs to be investigated. If the parties were reversed, you can bet the rent that each and every Cruz supporter would be screaming murder most foul about how Trump "cheated" in Iowa, and THEY would be demanding that the results be thrown out, Hell - they would be demanding that Trump be exiled from any further primaries.

And they incessantly blame Trump who is doing nothing but asserting that the Cruz campaign may have engaged in vote fraud (and I have yet to see anyone effectively refute what Karl Rove has said, and Rove is no friend of conservatives or Trump) and Trump is threatening legal action of his own.

But noooooo, TRUMP is the villain, TRUMP is the one who must be attacked, and this sick mentality is identical to the depraved individuals in society who, when learning of a woman being raped, immediately blame the victim, asking "well, what was she wearing?" or "did she do something provocative?" or some similar clap trap.

What happened in Iowa on Monday has yet to be fully determined, however there are strong suggestions that the Cruz campaign engaged in electoral rape of the Carson and Trump campaigns.

And that needs to be thoroughly investigated, for the benefit of Carson and Trump, and even for Cruz. He doesn't need this sort of thing following him through the next primaries.

Let the flames begin. I'm ready. BRING IT.

[LoveUSA]

I never thought of Trump as “pretty”, but if you say so....

[justlittleoleme]

Yawn

[libbylu]

Steve Deace ‏@SteveDeaceShow 9h9 hours ago Des Moines, IA

So on top of running for president, apparently @tedcruz must add CNN ombudsman to his daily duties. What does that pay by the way?

[McGruff]

In order to believe Ted Cruz’s account you would have to believe Ben Carson, Donald Trump and CNN are all lying.

And why did Cruz apologize if he din’t do anything wrong?

[nclaurel]

Are you accusing Carson of deceit? Cruz supporters seem to be without any moral compass if it involves Cruz lying. I can’t imagine the screaming here if anyone had done it hat to Cruz. Christian principles fly out the window.

[nclaurel]

BS it has been shown over and over that CNN did NOT say Carson was dropping out that is the twist Cruz campaign put on it. But truth doesn’t matter if it involves Cruz campaign lying.