Posted on 03/27/2016 12:05:07 PM PDT by Mensius
Phil Houston is CEO of QVerity, a training and consulting company specializing in detecting deception by employing a model he developed while at the Central Intelligence Agency. He has conducted thousands of interviews and interrogations for the CIA and other federal agencies. His colleague Don Tennant contributed to this report.
The eyebrow-raising story that appeared earlier this week in the National Enquirer, citing claims that Sen. Ted Cruz had engaged in five extramarital affairs, drew a sharp response by the Republican presidential contender. Sharp as it was, however, it was strikingly weak in terms of denial, and strong in terms of attack. And that combination is a telltale sign of deception that leads us to conclude that this is a matter that warrants further investigation.
The statement that Cruz released on his Facebook page on Friday immediately drew our attention:
“I want to be crystal clear: these attacks are garbage. For Donald J. Trump to enlist his friends at the National Enquirer and his political henchmen to do his bidding shows you that there is no low Donald won’t go. These smears are completely false, they’re offensive to Heidi and me, they’re offensive to our daughters, and they’re offensive to everyone Donald continues to personally attack. Donald Trump’s consistently disgraceful behavior is beneath the office we are seeking and we are not going to follow.”
Subsequently speaking about the matter, Cruz echoed that sentiment, with even more intensity (you can watch below). He said:
“The National Enquirer published a story. It is a story that quoted one source on the record: Roger Stone, Donald Trump’s chief political advisor. Let me be clear, this National Enquirer story is garbage. It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear, and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen. It is attacking my family, and what is striking is Donald’s henchman, Roger Stone, had for months been foreshadowing that this attack was coming. It’s not surprising that Donald Trump’s tweet occurs the day before the attack comes out. And I would note that Mr. Stone is a man who has 50 years of dirty tricks behind him. He’s a man for whom a term was coined for copulating with a rodent. Well let me be clear: Donald Trump may be a rat, but I have no desire to copulate with him. And this garbage does not belong in politics. The National Enquirer has endorsed Donald Trump, has said he must be President. And so Donald, when he’s losing, when he’s scared, when Republicans are uniting against him, decides to peddle sleaze and slime. You know, Donald is fond of giving people nicknames. With this pattern, he should not be surprised to see people calling him, ‘Sleazy Donald.’”
We should note that these two statements constitute the only material that we currently have at our disposal to analyze, which is far from ideal. Obviously, the more material available for analysis, the greater our confidence in our findings. With that said, however, we were struck by the volume of deceptive behavior that we identified in these statements.
Behaviorally, when the facts are the ally of an individual, he or she almost always tends to focus on the facts of the matter at hand. In this case, if the key fact was that he had not had these affairs, Cruz would almost certainly have been much more strongly focused on the denial. That is, he very likely would have made a point of explicitly stating something along the lines of, “I did not have these affairs.”
Yet at no point in either statement did Cruz say that. He implied it by saying the allegations are false, and that they’re lies, but behaviorally, such statements are not equivalent to saying he never had the affairs. Even if we were to overlook that fact and consider his statements to be a denial, there is an overwhelmingly higher proportion of attack behavior compared to the effort expended at denial. This type of lopsided attack-to-denial ratio is very consistent with what we have historically seen with deceptive people when allegations are levied against them.
Given the lack of additional information upon which to conduct a more comprehensive behavioral analysis, this is nothing more than our initial opinion and assessment, and we will continue to follow this matter very closely. At the same time, we cannot help but conclude at this point that it’s not looking good for Sen. Cruz.
ping to you :)
Even if we were to overlook that fact and consider his statements to be a denial, there is an overwhelmingly higher proportion of attack behavior compared to the effort expended at denial. This type of lopsided attack-to-denial ratio is very consistent with what we have historically seen with deceptive people when allegations are levied against them.
That ^^
You should be more concerned about when Cruz has to do if anyone has proof.
Trump wasn’t behind this.
At this point, I would vote for anyone but Cruz.
Hillary is a senile liar, a Marxist, and has a muslim brotherhood lesbian lover...but she might be an improvement over Cruz.
Cruz is way out on the fringe of reality--not just politics, but that too.
Cruz is insane. And I say that as an human behavior professional--having spent the night in a Holiday Inn Express.
EjaculaTED.
the fact there is not outright denial is a strong indicator of the stories or at least much of the stories being true
the defense is at best loud but crude
Of course the married women aren’t going to come forward. But what about hooker #2?
Only one really has to, especially if there’s.....evidence.
That said, I hear there are monied sources now willing to protect her.
Developing...
Exactly!
How easy is it to say, "I've never been unfaithful to my wife, Heidi. All these allegations are flat-out false!" .... ?
Easy peasy, were that the truth!
Wow, does that ever make sense.
Sarah Palin’s choice was also very telling. Just WDTD (what did Ted do) to turn her off?
It would seem reasonable he tried to turn her on
An egomaniac versus a megalomaniac who are probably both suffering from satyriasis which prolly ain’t suffering but as the only two left we have to suffer them.
Who to vote for?
Ted “dipstick” Cruz?
OR
Donald “dipschtick” Trump?
I prolly hadn’t lose any sleep over it and trust my voting machine will make the right choice.
Yikes.
I’d really, really like to know - after all she did to help him. And what exactly she must have told Donald.
My spidey-sense still questions Todd’s catastrophic accident.
This morning Ted said the same non-denial denial, but quickly pivoted to “but the American people want to hear about jobs”
Straight out of the Clinton/Lewinski playbook:
“I need to get busy working for the American people”
These politicians think we have no memory
Maybe to set up his opponents. It wouldn’t matter to many who might very well be slandering him.
You read a lot into what I said, I will vote for Trump if he gets the nom, I don’t intend on handing it over to the Hidabeat, I just know they both need to settle down and not make the other side to mad at these back and forth BS that is going on about women and wives. I just don’t see any good outcome in any of this
Hillary attacked lots of women. But she didn’t say anything about Monica because they both knew the truth was coming.
Does the term "flying ashtrays" bring anything to mind?
“Not even Cruz supporters can look at that statement and beam with pride.”
I wouldn’t be too sure, :).
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