Posted on 02/06/2016 9:42:23 AM PST by conservativejoy
Ever since Iowa, Donald Trump has spent all of his time fighting the good fight on behalf of wronged victim Ben Carson. Trump says that he was robbed, too, of course, but his heart truly goes out to Carson. Why? Well, Carson's team told CNN on Iowa caucus day that Carson was leaving the campaign trail to go to Florida, and that Carson would be skipping New Hampshire and South Carolina altogether. CNNâs Jake Tapper and Dana Bash had the following conversation:
Tapper: "It's very unusual, to announce that you're going home to rest for a few days, not going on to the next site."
Bash: "Very unusual...Look, if you want to be president of the United States, you don't go home to Florida. That's just bottom line, that's the end of the story. If you want to signal to your supporters that you're hungry, that you want them to get out and campaign, you have to get out there too, it's very unusual."
Tapper: "Very unusual."
Wolf Blitzer: "Very significant news indeed."
CNN tweeted the news: "After the #IACaucus, @RealBenCarson plans to take a break from campaigning."
The Cruz campaign seized on this news and began telling precinct captains to tell potential Carson voters that Carson was taking a break from campaigning, and so they might consider moving their votes over to Cruz. Cruz later apologized to Carson, but that wasn't enough - Carson held an oddly-organized press conference in which he suggested that Cruz's tactics werenât Christian, and that Cruz ought to fire his campaign workers for their error. Trump, meanwhile, continued to claim that he had in fact won Iowa, but that Cruz cheated.
Well, now it turns out that both CNN and Cruz had it right.
Today, Carson announced that he wouldn't be heading to New Hampshire until Saturday night, for the Republican debate. The Washington Post also announced that his campaign had chopped 50 staff positions as "part of an overhaul and downsizing of his entire campaign." The Post continued:
Salaries are being significantly reduced. Carson's traveling entourage will shrink to only a handful of advisers. And instead of flying on private jets, Carson may soon return to flying on commercial flights. The employees being released - about half of Carson's campaign - mostly work in field operations and at his headquarters in Northern Virginia. Campaign officials, who confirmed the moves after The Washington Post obtained an internal memo about the layoffs, stressed that key aides in upcoming GOP primary contests will remain in place and that Carson is determined to stay in the 2016 race. But they acknowledged that Carson's funds have diminished as he has fallen from the top tier, forcing him to make sweeping changes to a campaign that swelled into a bustling operation of about 125 people.
All of that followed on Carson's campaign manager quitting at the beginning of January along with 20 other staffers.
This campaign is done, in other words.
And Carson kept all of this cutting secret, knowing he'd have to do it after Iowa. So who was the real fibber here? The Cruz campaign, which correctly forecast Carson's drop out, or Carson's campaign, which insisted that he wasn't going anywhere, then proceeded to slash half its workforce and remove its candidate from the campaign trail?
With two primary elections being held within a month, Carson has not held a single campaign event since he left Iowa Monday night.
If Jim Gilmore is still in it to win it, I see no reason why Carson shouldn’t be. He has nothing to lose.
Cruz campaign knowingly falsified info to voters for personal gain. Not disputed anywhere, especially with the recordings.
Who?
This is what he looks like in case you have to pick him out of a line up some day.
Carson’s campaign stragety is not subject to your approval. He was screwed by Cruz no matter how you try to spin it and everyone knows it.
The CNN story was true. The Cruz campaign passed it on. Carson has not been campaigning since Iowa, not one event.
Good lord Ben Shaprio. So Cruz was “fake but accurate”. Fantastic bumper sticker.
It was a slick little trick that worked one time.
I will give them credit for being on top of events and quickly putting it to work. Clintonesque parsing as it were...
But not useful going forward. Won’t happen again I’d think this campaign cycle.
So you're saying that didn't happen?
Neither CNN nor Cruz had it right because Carson didn’t drop out during the caucuses. He didn’t suspend his campaign, he had events planned for NH and SC.
But now I guess if Carson ever drops out that clears CNN & Cruz, pathetic.
LOL!
I see nothing to indicate from this article that Carson has dropped out. He’ll be at the debate tonight and I hope he, Trump or somebody else rips Cruz a new one. He deserves it.
Looks like those Iowa shenanigans don't play well in New Hampshire.
Ben are you trying to rob Levin’s show? Mark has been flailing this dead horse for two days and I haven’t listened to Friday’s show yet, could be three days.
Just don’t tell anybody else.
I wouldn’t be too sure Cruz et al wouldn’t use it again. It’s a long campaign and people have very short memories.
Carson has been screwing his supporters big time, operating a money making scheme for himself and Armstrong Williams. I would love to see his empty campaign bus driving around primary states exposed for the world to see.
He needs to go back to defrauding people by selling his fake vitamins. The company may still be in business even though they are still paying millions in damages for fraud.
No. Carson has yet to campaign since the Rubio and Cruz camps repeated the CNN reports that Carson was not campaigning.
No false info, except from Carson and Trump.
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