TIMELINE: How Cruz's Camp Spun A Ben Carson Hoax During The Iowa Caucuses

TPM ^ | February 3, 2016, 2:12 PM EST | Katherine Krueger

[Red Steel]

Dr. Ben Carson, once a presidential contender leading the GOP polls, found himself swatting away rumors that he planned to drop out of the race in the heat of the Iowa caucuses Monday night.

The rumor was sourced to a single CNN report about Carson's plans to travel home to Florida after the Iowa caucuses - rather than directly to New Hampshire, as is typical - and was spread by Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-TX) campaign. It sparked a full-blown scandal as Carson claimed the Cruz camp's tactics hurt his performance in the caucuses and second-place finisher Donald Trump took up Carson's cause, calling for the election results to thrown out completely over Cruz's "fraud."

Here's a look at how the events unfolded on the night of the Iowa caucuses and the ensuing days (all times EST).

Caucus night

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.

The alert said Carson "will stop campaigning after Iowa" and urged users to tell people at the caucuses “they should coalesce around the true conservative who will be in the race for the long haul: TED CRUZ!"

It also included a photo of a TV tuned to CNN, showing the network's ever-present "BREAKING NEWS" banner paired with the headline "Campaign: Carson To Take A Break After Iowa."

8:20 p.m.: Rep. Steve King feeds the rumor mill

Following the Cruz campaign's lead, Rep. Steve King (R-IA), who endorsed Cruz in November, tweeted: "Carson looks like he is out."

Carson looks like he is out. Iowans need to know before they vote. Most will go to Cruz, I hope. https://t.co/lW5Js50EMA

- Steve King (@SteveKingIA) February 2, 2016

He linked to a tweet from CNN reporter Chris Moody, which read Carson "won’t go to NH/SC, but instead will head home to Florida for some R&R. He'll be in DC Thursday for the National Prayer Breakfast."

10:50 p.m.: Carson alludes to unnamed rivals' "dirty tricks" after fourth-place finish

In his Iowa concession speech, which the retired neurosurgeon began before the race was called for Cruz, Carson reiterated that he wasn't "going anywhere." He also bemoaned "dirty tricks" employed in the caucuses, without assigning blame to any other campaign in particular.

The aftermath

Feb. 2: Cruz apologizes after Carson directly accuses him of playing "dirty tricks"

Carson fingered the Cruz campaign as the source of the rumors he was dropping out and said its shady tactics ruined his chances in Iowa during an interview with "Fox and Friends."

"At many of the precincts, the information was disseminated that I was suspending my campaign, that I had dropped out," he said. "And anybody who was planning to vote for me was wasting their vote and therefore they should reconsider."

Carson told Fox News that his wife, Candy, had to set the record straight at one precinct.

"She spoke at one of the caucus sites and before she got there one of the Cruz people had again disseminated that information to the crowd," Carson said. "One of the organizers told her 'I'm so glad you're here, so you could set the record straight.' And she did and we actually won in that precinct."

The Cruz campaign apologized for disseminating the misinformation later in the day, calling the messaging “a mistake from our end.” The campaign conceded in a statement to CNN that it should have followed up with a corrected report about Carson was staying in the race, but argued it was "fair game" for surrogates to disseminate the news that Carson was leaving the campaign trail when it first broke.

For his part, Cruz surrogate Steve King apologized to the Carson campaign for "any miscommunications" during the caucuses.

I respect Ben Carson & regret any miscommunications. Perhaps @RealBenCarson supporters r unaware of this CNN story. https://t.co/RgrljodXl1

- Steve King (@SteveKingIA) February 2, 2016

Feb. 3: Trump accuses Cruz of "fraud," calls for Iowa results to be "nullified"

In a string of tweets posted Wednesday morning, Donald Trump said the Iowa caucus results should be nullified or a new election should be held because of Cruz's alleged "fraud." In one quickly deleted tweet, he said Cruz "illegally stole" his win in Iowa.

The real estate mogul claimed "many people" voted for Cruz instead of Carson because of the campaign's alert that Carson was dropping out. He also criticized the Cruz campaign's "voter violation" mailers, which implied Iowa voters had broken the law.

[Guenevere]

No flames from me.
I agree with you.
Well said!

[stockpirate]

My experience with Cruz supporters on social media is they are very rude. They call all the other canidates childrss names and their supportets.

If asked a question instead of snsweri g they resort to name calling.

The invade posts for other canidayes and try to take over the posting and drive other people off thr post.

Several times I’ve identified paid staff.

[mkjessup]

Thank you FRiend, I appreciate that. :)

[dynoman]

Denial is a huge dirty river running strong here on FR.

[Hostage]

The details show clearly that Cruz’ top people knew they were twisting the facts to a fraud.

Rather than send the messages to their staff members, they sent them to all 1500 precinct captains who announced to Carson supporters that he was dropping out and to caucus with the Cruz crowd.

The fraud likely caused with just 4 voters per precinct (~6000) for Cruz to top Trump in vote counts.

Ted Cruz likely knew nothing about it at the time but he is responsible for the ethical conduct of his top staff. Although he apologized, he refuses to take disciplinary action against his managers.

This incident will be buried in the coming weeks but it marks a footnote on the character of the people around Cruz.

[Hostage]

Blaming CNN doesn’t cut it.

The Cruz campaign management knew it was an error as the Carson campaign messaged them that it was not true before they sent the lie out to 1500 precinct captains.

They knew it was an error, yet they still sent it out so that 1500 precincts would herd Carson voters in with the Cruz caucus.

CNN started the rumor, the Carson campaign corrected the rumor, but the ground management ignored the message that it was an error. This is clear fraud.

Not every voter was watching CNN. They were listening to precinct captains who were telling them that Carson was dropping out and to caucus with the Cruz people.

It was clear fraud with a message timeline that confirms it.

[Pravious]

“Carson’s mouth did all the hanky panky to himself.”

Someone goes out. Someone else breaks into their house and steals things. To you Cruzers, I guess it’s the fault of that stupid person for going out!

Do you have people have any sense of right or wrong at all? Or is garbage like “Politics is a blood sport!” justification for ANY dirty tricks the Canadian Preacher plays?

[CAluvdubya]

No one. Frickin. Cares.

Sure......just like no one cared when, during the last election, tires were slashed, ballot boxes were driven around half the night in the trunks of cars, homeless people were paid in cigarettes and booze for votes, etc.

Maybe we'd like our own side to stop with the political dirty tricks. Just because we need to be aware of what the Dems are capable of, doesn't mean we have to participate in these kinds of antics.

[UCANSEE2]

The most important thing missing from this timeline is the fact that the ‘info’ ORIGINATED with CARSON himself.

If he didn’t want it to affect the voting, he shouldn’t have started spreading the word about his plans.

[dynoman]

WOW! Karl Rove Explains How Cruz Camp’s Cheating Stole Iowa from Trump
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocgEmgXXwF8

[scooby321]

Cruz and Steve King are trash

[CAluvdubya]

And why did Cruz apologize if he didn't do anything wrong?

In certain judge's eyes, an apology indicates an admission of guilt. I believe cases are won or lost when it's been revealed that one of the parties issued an apology.....

Sure makes Cruz look like he knew exactly what happened.

[Georgia Girl 2]

Well there is no way to re-do the Iowa election but Cruz’s credibility took a big hit with a lot of republican voters. I was shocked at that shaming letter. After that the other dirty trix were not surprising. Getting a written reprimand from the Iowa Sec of State does not help your credibility.

[hoosiermama]

And he is definitely not a Trump supporter.
Second showing did not air last night. Hopefully it will be aired several times this weekend

[jstaff]

Are you purposely ignoring all the other stuff, or just waking up?

[dynoman]

This deleted tweet by Dan Gabriel needs to be fit in somewhere too.

Here's who Dan Gabriel is;

Google search -> Deleted tweet dan gabriel Ted Cruz

[UCANSEE2]

Here is how I see it.

“Carson shoots himself in foot. Blames gun and bullet.”

[RavenLooneyToon]

[hoosiermama]

There is a thread pointing out that this is not the first a particular Cruz staff member used the identical — he’s pulling out of the race give me all your votes — scam.

[CAluvdubya]

Cruz and Steve King are trash

My opinion of them has sure changed, especially Cruz. I used to defend his "I didn't know about my Canadian citizenship" claim but he's had too many, "I didn't know's" for me to believe him any longer.

I'm tired of being tricked by Republican's character (let's see, there's been John Roberts, Eric Cantor, Paul Ryan, John Boehner... many that I believed were pulling for us only to be disappointed)