I don't know whether he (the campaign) did or not. Rep. Steve King (national campaign co-chair) Tweeted the "news" after he grossly (and stupidly) misinterpreted a Tweet from CNN's Chris Moody.
This photo of a Tweet from "Ted Cruz 2016" is definitely not from the campaign; it appears to be from someone who, like me, trusted King. If the campaign (@tedcruz) Tweeted anything of the sort, it's gone now.
As we caucus site workers were wrapping things up around 9 PM, a fellow Cruzer mentioned Carson will be dropping out and we were asked to mention it. I don't know whether he heard that from the campaign, Steve King, or breaking news. But I told him if I'd known, I would've mentioned it in my two-minute speech on Cruz's behalf. After I got home, I heard it was a false rumor about Carson.
Regardless, my point was to say if I'd heard it early enough from King or the campaign--reliable sources--I would have unknowingly spread the lie. As it turns out, the original source merely said Carson was going home for some R&R; it appears King mistakenly assumed that meant he was dropping out and saw a time-sensitive opportunity in that. So, he ran with it and fell flat on his face.
There really is a “heat of battle” aspect where you forget that things may be a trap or false. I would have assumed it to be true before I ever heard the rumor.
“As it turns out, the original source merely said Carson was going home for some R&R”
Chris Moody tweeted that Carson was going home before the caucus results then tweeted he was skipping NC and SC too. Later he tweeted he was going home for R&R.
The original tweet from the CNN guy said that CArson would not be campaigning for the next primaries.
The lie was put out there by CNN around 5pm when Rubio’s people started saying they would do better than anybody expected. I believe it was a very calculated lie for that express purpose. If you look at my posts today, at http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:butterdezillion/index?brevity=full;tab=comments you’ll see some reasons why I think that.