Posted on 03/27/2016 1:51:48 PM PDT by drewh
Phil Houston is CEO of QVerity, a training and consulting company specializing in detecting deception by employing a model he developed while at the Central Intelligence Agency. He has conducted thousands of interviews and interrogations for the CIA and other federal agencies. His colleague Don Tennant contributed to this report.
The eyebrow-raising story that appeared earlier this week in the National Enquirer, citing claims that Sen. Ted Cruz had engaged in five extramarital affairs, drew a sharp response from the Republican presidential contender. Sharp as it was, however, it was strikingly weak in terms of denial, and strong in terms of attack. And that combination is a telltale sign of deception that leads us to conclude that this is a matter that warrants further investigation.
The statement that Cruz released on his Facebook page on Friday immediately drew our attention:
I want to be crystal clear: these attacks are garbage. For Donald J. Trump to enlist his friends at the National Enquirer and his political henchmen to do his bidding shows you that there is no low Donald wont go. These smears are completely false, theyre offensive to Heidi and me, theyre offensive to our daughters, and theyre offensive to everyone Donald continues to personally attack. Donald Trumps consistently disgraceful behavior is beneath the office we are seeking and we are not going to follow.
Subsequently speaking about the matter, Cruz echoed that sentiment, with even more intensity (you can watch below). He said:
The National Enquirer published a story. It is a story that quoted one source on the record: Roger Stone, Donald Trumps chief political advisor. Let me be clear, this National Enquirer story is garbage. It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear, and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen. It is attacking my family, and what is striking is Donalds henchman, Roger Stone, had for months been foreshadowing that this attack was coming. Its not surprising that Donald Trumps tweet occurs the day before the attack comes out. And I would note that Mr. Stone is a man who has 50 years of dirty tricks behind him. Hes a man for whom a term was coined for copulating with a rodent. Well let me be clear: Donald Trump may be a rat, but I have no desire to copulate with him. And this garbage does not belong in politics. The National Enquirer has endorsed Donald Trump, has said he must be President. And so Donald, when hes losing, when hes scared, when Republicans are uniting against him, decides to peddle sleaze and slime. You know, Donald is fond of giving people nicknames. With this pattern, he should not be surprised to see people calling him, Sleazy Donald.
We should note that these two statements constitute the only material that we currently have at our disposal to analyze, which is far from ideal. Obviously, the more material available for analysis, the greater our confidence in our findings. With that said, however, we were struck by the volume of deceptive behavior that we identified in these statements.
Behaviorally, when the facts are the ally of an individual, he or she almost always tends to focus on the facts of the matter at hand. In this case, if the key fact was that he had not had these affairs, Cruz would almost certainly have been much more strongly focused on the denial. That is, he very likely would have made a point of explicitly stating something along the lines of, I did not have these affairs.
Yet at no point in either statement did Cruz say that. He implied it by saying the allegations are false, and that theyre lies, but behaviorally, such statements are not equivalent to saying he never had the affairs. Even if we were to overlook that fact and consider his statements to be a denial, there is an overwhelmingly higher proportion of attack behavior compared to the effort expended at denial. This type of lopsided attack-to-denial ratio is very consistent with what we have historically seen with deceptive people when allegations are levied against them.
Given the lack of additional information upon which to conduct a more comprehensive behavioral analysis, this is nothing more than our initial opinion and assessment, and we will continue to follow this matter very closely. At the same time, we cannot help but conclude at this point that its not looking good for Sen. Cruz.
If you want to make something more out of it I would be more than happy to oblige.
Is that what you truly wish to do?
Ted, Hillary and Bernie are all going to crack before the elections.
Trump has the short and long game.
That is a more appropriate response as all I was trying to do was inform.
I'll take that as an apology for your earlier rudeness as well.
I repeat my thanks for giving me something new to learn, indeed I have. My apologies if I misread your intentions, it is easy to do on a political forum. Adultery is a terrible thing. I am not afraid of continued political discourse, but I do not think that will change minds or hearts on this day. We as voters will vote for the candidate we think will make the best president, it’s that simple.
But give him credit, he's a genius at adding to the urban dictionary -- terms such as "rat copulation". But you may have a point. I mean what's a weasel but a long necked rat :- ) |
driftdiver just copulaTED the whole thrust of his attack with the typo in said attack.
The difference between us seems to be that changing minds or hearts is not what I'm about.
I state what I believe, or know, and I stand my ground. Whether or not you join me on my patch of ground is your decision.
Like with capital punishment/death penalty. To me it's justified, plain and simple. What you believe is not my concern. If you attack my position I attack back, but not to change your heart or mind. I simply refuse to give ground.
To the best of my knowledge, he never unequivocally said they are false; he said they are GARBAGE. Well, yeah, they could be garbage, and still be true. Where there’s smoke, there’s usually some fire. We don’t really need to belabor this any more, anyhow. Within 48 to 72 hours, this thing should be pretty well cleared up, one way or another; either FOR Cruz, or AGAINST him. Just hide and watch.
Dragonblustar makes a request, mkjessup delivers.
Behold the Tedtanic and the drowning Cruznadians!
Put up or shut up.
I'd say just give it a little time my friend.
Opportunist handlers have to get to some of these women and talk them into humiliating themselves for large sums of money and momentary fame and it will all come spilling out.
This reminds me of EARLY Bill Cosby, when they said, "oh come on, NOT Cosby"
Surprised a trumpette would know the difference. Of course you didn’t argue the point.
That side of you is your humanity. Cruz’s adultery if true will cause great pain for his family, especially his daughters. Anytime a family is broken apart by sin it is a tragedy whether anyone is running for president our not. His daughters are innocent of whatever Ted Cruz has done and if Heidi leaves him then the U.S. has gained another broken family. We should pray for them not condemn them, even if we don’t vote for him.
We manifest what we think.
Trump is leading and has had the opportunity to manifest leadership in economics. Is this what we see in his campaign?
No, instead we see adversarial attacks on his opponents. He now solicits the National Enquirer to go after his competitors with charges of sexual impropriety.
This is what flows through the mind of Trump.
He believes the best attack is to go after those things he is most preoccupied with in his thinking.
Sexual immorality is a significant challenge in the mind of Trump. He’ll conceal it to a point, then he’ll accuse others seeking approbation for his own thinking.
If he didn’t think this way, we would never have seen these very contrived accusations. They are tabloid trash.
Very true. We have to hate the sin but love the sinner. Not always easy to do, but to obtain mercy, we must be merciful.
God help us.
It's all the rage Skeeter.. the NEW Soap Opera "As the Stomach Turns" starring Ted Cruz as the new Jimmy Swaggart.
I’m not worried about it. I’d have to use smaller words for the average trump supporter to catch it anyway.
Another tell during that interview, I've not seen mentioned, was Her head was nodding yes while her mouth was declaring no. She was in fact highly conflicted.
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