Ted Cruz referred to the CNN reports at 0:50 of the video ( TRUE — CNN DID REPORT THAT)
This of course was not true but picked up by Ted Cruz supporters.
According to talking points memo...
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/cruz-carson-dirty-tricks-iowa-caucuses-timeline
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.
So, it all started from CNN and was picked up by Cruz who CITED CNN.
The Cruz message said : “CNN is reporting that Ben Carson will stop campaigning after Iowa”
Well, how do you take this original take from CNN:
“Ben Carson is going to go back to Florida, to his home, regardless of how he does tonight here in Iowa”?
Even the Video at 1:39 showing Ted Cruz’s official memo saying that Ben Cruz is taking time off from the campaign trail after Iowa is a repeat of the CNN news.
Is that an indicator that he will stop campaigning? We do not know.
The problem was this was repeated and repeated and it got out of hand.
Who for instance is this Dan Gabriel (VIDEO 1:57) and did Cruz tell him to tweet out that Carson was quitting? Is Cruz responsible for every single tweet by his supporters?
The video then proceeds to tell us that this Dan Gabriel is a former CIA operative ( 2:49) who has ties to George Soros.
Now THAT is interesting. I’d like to know more about this angle ...
Questions:
1) Is Cruz in close contact with Dan Gabriel?
2) Did Cruz agree to what Dan Gabriel did?
Let’s explore this angle further.
Since it is alleged that Dan Gabriel has ties to Soros, what is Soros’ interest in Ted Cruz’s campaign?
Let’s answer all the above questions first before we jump into conclusions.
have no idea what the deal is with this CIA guy, or George Soros - that stuff hits me as perhaps tinfoil hat territory - but I honestly do not know and have no way of “going there” ...
If you have the time and resources to investigate that angle, then by all means do so.
The fact still remains that what CNN reported and what Cruz’ campaign staffers and precinct captains did with the story are not identical. Whether it “got out of control” is a side issue. The central point is that CNN did not report that Carson was “quitting” the race or “suspending” his campaign. That is the bottom line.
CNN reported one thing, and Cruz’ people decided to create their own narrative, based on a false assumption, which they never verified - and the reason they never verified their assumption is because it was not to their advantage to verify their assumption. It cannot be stated any plainer than that.