Posted on 02/04/2016 10:47:52 AM PST by SoConPubbie
Senator Ted Cruz on Thursday battled with ABC’s Tom Llamas after the Good Morning America reporter accused the Republican of using “dirty tricks” against Ben Carson in Iowa. Regarding a press release and a tweet sent out by the Cruz campaign on caucus night, Llamas demanded, “Will you fire or suspend anyone at your campaign for putting out misinformation?...Is it a dirty trick to confuse voters?”
Llamas has a history of going after the 2016 GOP field. On August 20, 2015, he screamed at Donald Trump, lecturing him that “anchor baby” is an “offensive term.” On January 6, 2016, the journalist scolded Cruz, wondering “how can you be a president” if you “hate Democrats” and the “culture of Washington.”
See transcript below:
GMA
2/4/16
7:04am ET
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: We’re going to move on to the race for president now, Your voice, your vote. And just two days before our big GOP debate, brand-new poll out moments ago shows Donald Trump holding on to a 20-point lead in New Hampshire over Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz as two more candidates drop out of the race and Trump accuses Cruz of stealing the Iowa caucuses. So there's a whole lot happening. ABC's Tom Llamas tracking all the latest from Manchester. Good morning, Tom.
TOM LLAMAS: George, good morning to you. So many developments on the GOP side, Senator Rand Paul dropping out. Santorum dropping out, endorsing Senator Marco Rubio and as you just said, Donald Trump now accusing Senator Ted Cruz of stealing the Iowa caucuses while also learning there are some dangers to campaigning.
PILOT: We have an inbound emergency. Runway is going to be shut down.
LLAMAS: Overnight, a scare in the air for Donald Trump. Trump Force One forced to make an emergency landing in Nashville because of a mechanical problem.
PILOT: Runway 20 right cleared to land.
LLAMAS: Trump eventually hitting his campaign stop in Little Rock eventually.
TRUMP: Suddenly, my guys said, “Oh, that's okay, we can go back to New York, Mr. Trump. We can come another day.” I said, “There's no way. I love Arkansas.”
LLAMAS: There's also no stopping Trump's new attack, claiming Senator Ted Cruz cheated his way to victory in Iowa.
TRUMP: What he did to Ben Carson was a disgrace that he had quit the race. Everyone knew he didn't quit the race.
LLAMAS: Trump, referring to this Cruz campaign e-mail sent on caucus day. They cite a press report saying Dr. Carson is taking time off after Iowa. It goes on to say, “Please inform any Carson caucus goers of this news and urge them to caucus for Ted Cruz.”
TRUMP: It's not a mistake. He did it on purpose.
LLAMAS: Carson says it hurt his chances in Iowa and he's calling for accountability.
BEN CARSON: At least those people who are responsible should come out publicly and admit what they did.
LLAMAS: Cruz apologized to Carson but is standing by his campaign's actions. Will you fire or suspend anyone at your campaign for putting out misinformation?
TED CRUZ: No. We're not going to scapegoat anybody and I would note that the news story that our team passed on was true and accurate. CNN reported it.
LLAMAS: But is it a dirty trick to confuse voters?
CRUZ: Is it a dirty trick to pass on your news stories? You're in the business. Would you think it was if I forwarding an ABC story or just a dirty trick to pass on CNN stories?
LLAMAS: Cruz lashing out at Trump, saying the billionaire is stirring the pot because he lost in Iowa.
CRUZ: Well, listen, it is no surprise that Donald is throwing yet another temper tantrum, or if you like, yet another Trumper tantrum.
LLAMAS: As Cruz and Trump spar, Governor Chris Christie is keeping the pressure on Senator Marco Rubio. Christie warning of the dangers of electing another first term senator.
CHRIS CHRISTIE: Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
LLAMAS: Now, Governor Christie part of that pool of governors that right now is sort of at the bottom of the polls along with Jeb Bush and Governor John Kasich, all campaigning very hard in New Hampshire hoping for a ticket to South Carolina. George.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Okay, Tom, thanks very much.
After noting that the story that Carson would be taking some time off came from CNN, Cruz challenged Llamas: “Is it a dirty trick to pass on your news stories? You're in the business. Would you think it was if I forwarding an ABC story or just a dirty trick to pass on CNN stories?”
Deace is a Cruz precinct captain defending the clear cheating that went on. But the message back and forth is on record and he can’t get away from that. He can try to evade it, but he can’t make it go away.
The Cruz camp saw a golden opportunity to cheat in the confusion and revealed themselves to be scumbags. Now they are trying to BS their way out of it, and Deace as a politician is a BS artist. He knows how to lie and spin.
The result is that Ted can no longer hold up a squeaky clean image because he has scumbags working for him. He should have fired his Iowa campaign chief and told Deace and others to cease and desist.
No one can redo the caucuses, no one would be able to tabulate the precise damage done. Cruz walks away with a modest win in Iowa but a tarnished reputation, unless he was willing to set an example and discipline the cheaters. He would still be viewed the winner but also as a responsible candidate. Instead and unfortunately, He is attempting damage control by protecting the scumbags involved.
Ted’s position is not one that anyone would trade for. He’s damaged regardless. But the damage to his integrity could have been minimized if he had announced he was going to get to the bottom of it and discipline those responsible. But NH is less than a week away and he finds himself in a jam and seeks to have people like Deace go on the offense with a BS line.
In any event, this story will fade in a few days by news from NH, but Cruz admirers will be having a diminished view of the Cruz campaign.
“Based on the effectiveness of his campaign, I’m sure plenty of voters were under the impression he dropped out long ago.”
When did he come back from his book tour? That’s what tells you he’s not a serious candidate. One of the reasons McCain lost was because he stopped campaigning right before the election to have that stupid economic summit or whatever.
Well, was it 6,000 Cruz voters over Trump’s? I forget the exact numbers. They’re entitled to vote for who they choose. You have no idea whether they disliked Trump. They just preferred Cruz. Hope they’re not having buyer’s remorse.
This is all you get without doing the work yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocgEmgXXwF8
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3392094/posts?page=1#1
The message to the Cruz precinct captains for each of the 1500 precincts was spun to Carson supporters that Carson was quitting the race.
The timeline is clear. Cruz campaign knew before the misinformation was transmitted that Carson had no intention of dropping out.
Cruz missile fired and it was a direct hit on the target!
Get your heads out of your asses:
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/04/ted-cruz-voicemails-ben-carson-exclusive-audio/
The record is clear. Cruz has scumbags working for him.
Did you even listen to the voice mails? Neither of them said Carson was quitting. One said he was taking a leave of absence from campaigning, and the other said he was suspending campaigning (not suspending his campaign). The wording is inelegant, but neither of those messages says he is quitting the campaign.
What am I looking for? There’s nothing there that tends to prove that Cruz said Carson was dropping out. Have you seen the original Cruz message, it repeats the CNN NEWS source exactly.
Well from what I gather it was all a very big mess, started by CNN. Did the Cruz campaign take advantage yeah maybe, but Rubio was also trying to do so as well. Also the Cruz campaign has apologized saying that they should have corrected the story. I have never worked on a campaign, but I would assume that election night is a very hectic and crazy night. Especially for the campaigns involved,
You really think that among 1500 precinct captains for Cruz, who received false misleading information, would repeat verbatim the back and forth messaging taking place by principles? You really think they wouldn’t say Carson has “suspended his campaign”, “Carson is quitting”, etc.?
The fact is the Cruz campaign chief is the same person who received the message from the Carson camp that clarified that Carson was in no way quitting, and yet he chose to forward the misinformation to the precinct captains and he also edited the message leaving out parts that would imply that Carson was merely going home to Florida. Yes, he edited it to favor his guy. He’s a scumbag period.
Enough of this. Ted is now skating on thinner ice.
Rubio is the real enemy going forward. Talk about scumbags, this guy epitomizes it.
Yes it’s confusing. But the cheating in this case was willfully carried out by the Cruz campaign managers. They knew there was confusion and they chose to take advantage of it even though they had direct messaging from the Carson camp that clarified the situation BEFORE.
The issue is not confusion, the issue is ethics and integrity. They knew the real story but they let the rumor play to their advantage. That’s the crux of the issue.
I guarantee you Ronald Reagan and his team would never have stood for this. The second they heard that someone in their group lacked judgment and integrity, that person was gone.
For democrats on the other hand, this is SOP.
Seems like that applies to Trump too.
Trump got as many votes as GOP winners normally garner. A lot of extra people had to turn out to top that. I keep hearing that Ted Cruz doesn't inspire the masses. So if Cruz can't attract them they must have been passionate about stopping someone else's momentum. Going into Iowa, there were only two candidates with momentum.
My conclusion is logical.
Hope they’re not having buyer’s remorse.
Good luck to Trump as well.
seems like your case now rests upon assumptions by you of lower level actions. but you bring forth no proof of any such lower level actions. instead, you merely accuse lower levels of not repeating higher level messages verbatim, and without foundation.
are you sure you are feeling well?
Did you ever hear of an invention called the telephone?
Get lost.
This story lists them:
One tweet said specifically "“Carson looks like he is out. Iowans need to know before they vote. Most will go to Cruz, I hope,â€"
Carson said: "“For months, my campaign has survived the lies and dirty tricks from opponents who profess to detest the games of the political class, but in reality are masters at it,†Carson said in a release. “Even tonight, my opponents resorted to political tricks by tweeting, texting and telling precinct captains to announce that I had suspended my campaign – in some cases asking caucus goers to change their votes.â€
There's no doubt the Cruz campaign did exactly this. Yet instead of taking the blame they're blaming Carson for daring to fly to Florida.
Sorry, post 72.
are you sure you are feeling well?
The requested document does not exist on this server.
Okay
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