Ben Carson was incensed as the results of Monday nightâs Iowa caucuses rolled in, accusing the winner of spreading falsehoods about him at caucus sites. Carsonâs team claimed that Cruzâs campaign deliberately sent emails to supporters to spread false rumors at caucus sites that Carson had dropped out, so his supporters would caucus for other candidates. âThat is really quite a dirty trick,â Carson said speaking to reporters at the end of the evening. âThatâs the very kind of thing that irritated me enough to get into this quagmire.â Ryan Rhodes, Carsonâs Iowa state director, showed reporters a text on his phone from Barbara Heki, a Mike Huckabee supporter. âThe Cruz speakers at our caucus announced Carson was suspending his campaign for a while after caucus. They did this before the vote. Same thing happened at another caucus. Sounds like slimy Cruzing to me,â the text read. Jason Osborne, Carsonâs deputy senior strategist, read aloud another missive, this one an email from their precinct chair in Muscatine: âThe guy speaking for Ted Cruz right before the vote, he was supposed to be done, he announced that there was a story on CNN that Ben Carson was taking a break after Iowa, and then stated, âSo you might want to rethink wasting your vote on him.ââ Cruzâs team flatly denies the allegations. âThatâs absurd,â spokesperson Catherine Frazier said simply.
Carsonâs team has yet to produce any emails, I gather, to prove their allegations. But I suppose it is possible, given that there were reports earlier today that suggested Carson might be dropping out:
Speculation abounded Monday night that GOP presidential hopeful Ben Carson might drop out of the race, after news broke that Carson was not sticking around in Iowa to wait out caucus results, nor heading directly to New Hampshire or South Carolina for the next primaries on the calendar.
The Carson campaign had to dispel the rumors later today:
Indeed we even reported on this earlier ourselves.
So perhaps some of the Cruz caucusers caught wind of the bad report and began spreading it at caucuses tonight? I donât know. Itâs possible.
Either way if itâs true, it sucks for Carson. But it may be the result of an unfortunate rumor more than anything. Unless they can get their hands on some hard evidence to prove that the Cruz campaign orchestrated the spreading of false rumors, I think this story will likely die soon.
UPDATE: Looks like a guy named Spence Rogers sent the message to precinct captains:
Some are suggesting that CNN broke the story that Carson was dropping out. They didnât say that specifically, but from what I saw on Twitter, some certainly perceived it that way. Hereâs the CNN report:
This broke just before the caucuses began tonight. No doubt some took at his leaving the campaign. Here are a few tweets from newsers (h/t: Twitchy):
Sounds like a bad story that ran amuck and people started making assumptions that the Carson campaign had to squash later. If I heard that Carson was quitting, Iâd want his votes too. That said, it wasnât reported as âdropping outâ from CNN and people should be more careful in the desperation to win, not to believe everything they hear.
Thanks for the info, rodguy!
Oh Spencer had help from Congressman Steve King sent a tweet 20 minutes after caucusing began ....shaaaame on him!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and he was euphoric while standing behind Cruz during victory sermon.
King tweet:
Carson looks like he is out. Iowans need to know before they vote. Most will go to Cruz, I hope.