Cruz camp insider washes his hands from the dirtiest campaign in his entire political career. The underhanded tactics are out of control. Listen to Bill Still’s report on the Cruz ‘cult like’ campaign and those who are involved from an insider who is now coming clean.
Published on Mar 30, 2016
By Bill Still
With Heidi Cruz missing in action, a significant Cruz insider – let’s call him John Doe – started cleansing his spirit of what apparently is a more evil Cruz campaign than most of us imagined.
At the outset, we are convinced that John Doe is legit. We have seen his employment letter on Cruz campaign stationary. He makes north of $3500 per week.
When this is all over, it is John Doe the nation has to thank for being brave enough to come forward. Right now, the only thing that concerns him is that he doesn’t want to get a reputation for being a whistleblower.
He stresses that he has been in this business for over 20 years and this is the first campaign that was so dirty that he just has to spill the beans on them.
John has been tweeting under the handle Stop Ted Cruz for several weeks now. He tweeted to Ann Coulter on Feb. 11: [Tweet Feb 11] “I used to work for Ted Cruz and now look at my Twitter handle the guy is a huge liar.”
Then John Doe offers proof of his employment as communications director: [Tweet, Feb. 12]
“…follow for DM of proof that I worked on campaign as comm director.
But let’s now jump up to March 10. John claims that the night of the Iowa caucus, the operation against Ben Carson was not accidental and not put together on the fly. It had been thoroughly planned out starting two weeks before. It was: [Tweet, March 10 ] “…a plan that was hatched on January 15th for the record.”
Trump supporter Melanie Lauren tweeted back: [ March 10] “What, the robo calls were planned on Jan. 15th?”
John Doe responded: [Tweet, March 10] “…the plan for caucus night was made 2 weeks prior.”
Then my wife tweeted out: “…I believe it is was too well coordinated to have been on the spot”
Next Melanie Lauren asked: “What was he like in person, day to day?”
John Doe responded:
“…he just panders to whoever he is talkingto after a while it wears thin and many staffers quit. Lookup Don Fairly (my friend)”
That was the last we heard from John Doe. No one knew if he was for real, or just some internet troll trying to plant confusion. Then suddenly, after nearly a 6 week absence, on March 26, John Doe reappeared.
“Since a few people have asked the other campaigns I’ve worked on: GW Bush, Rick Scott, Rubio (senate), Nikki Haley, Santorum ’12, Tom Cotton”
[Tweet, Mar. 28] “The strategyby the Cruz Campaign is pretty obvious: trying to bring Trump down has failed so now let’s bring down his staff and family.”
Then, this disturbing tweet on March 28: “They are setting Trump up for a red wedding style betrayal we need to be in Cleveland ready.”
The Red Wedding is apparently a reference to an episode in “Game of Thrones”.
The meaning is that they intend to take Trump down in some nefarious way at the convention in Cleveland.
John Doe then tweeted:
[March 29] “The cruz camp wouldn’t expect defectors like me because the campaign is run similarly to Jones Town”.
As he explained to us personally, even though Cruz is lying constantly and doing all sorts of dirty deeds, the staff is told that only he – Cruz – is a true conservative and since the ends are noble – namely Cruz becoming the President – then any means can be excused. The staff knows this is wrong, but they are afraid to question it.
We also talked to John Doe over a private connection. He talked about what led him to quit the Cruz campaign. He explained that it was over this very complex plan hatched by none other than Amanda Carpenter – a former Cruzer, who had been hired by CNN.
Carpenter rolled out the idea on or about Jan. 15, 2016 – 17 days before the Caucus. The plan was able to manipulate Carson out of delegates that should have voted for him and sent them mostly to Cruz. “The basic story is I have worked on republican campaigns since I graduated from ….. 24 years ago. Not once have I quit a campaign even when I had disagreements with strategy, language, anything really.”
“I had to quit the Cruz campaign after in Mid January I was flown from South Carolina to Iowa for the home stretch before the Iowa Caucus.”
“Once in Iowa I was instructed to make calls and monitor other volunteers making calls – hundreds of calls a day. Lying about Trump as well as Senator Rubio.”
“I bit my tongue at first knowing it was wrong. Then 2 weeks prior to the Iowa Caucus myself and a few other Cruz top campaign aids were in a room and we received the results of our internal poll.”
“Trump was leading Cruz second and Ben Carson 3rd with a shockingly high amount of support – meaning much more support than what CNN/Fox had him at.”
“The kicker was that a majority of Carson supporters had Cruz as their second choice.”
“At that time the plan to tell people Ben Carson was dropping out of the race on caucus day was hatched. Coordinated with former Cruz Op Amanda Carpenter at CNN. Actually, this operation was her idea initially. I strongly opposed this, but they decided they were going to do it anyways so I quit January 18th.”
My wife, Beth responded: “Wow, not surprised at all – he always did seem slimy to us and I have always said it was more like a cult.”
“You mentioned that it seemed like Jonestown. In what way?“
John Doe: “Just in the way that almost everyone knew the Ben Carson thing was coming. Everyone knew it was wrong but no one said anything because Cruz has them all convinced he is some conservative God and anything he suggests is for the betterment of society.”
Beth Still: “My husband wants to know if he can use this information and should he say from a reliable source, or characterize it in another way, or if not we certainly understand.”
“Yes you can use the info just don’t want it getting back to me. I’m actually off to …. next week to start working as …. for [another campaign].”
“Call me a Cruz operative with 24 years of political experience. You can use the picture of my offer letter from the campaign just blur out the name ….”
And finally, we asked John Doe if there was anything to the allegations in the National Enquirer about Cruz having mistresses. “It’s 100% true that he has affairs. All top-level staffers got an email directly from Heidi Cruz saying that she knew about it and it was ok, and for us to not concern ourselves with it.”
I’m still reporting from Washington. Good day.- Bill Still
GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson endorsed GOP frontrunner Donald Trump on Friday morning in Palm Beach, Florida during a press conference.
“Everybody loves him and truly, truly admires what he’s done,” Trump said of Carson as he introduced him at the press conference. “I just want to tell you having his support really adds total credence to what I’m trying to do and what we’re all trying to do.”
“It’s not about the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, it’s about the people of America,” Carson said. “I want the voice of the people to be heard.”
Carson also said it is important to let the political process play out how it should by the will of the voters.
“I’ve come to know Donald Trump over the last few years. He is actually a very intelligent man who cares deeply about America,” Carson added, explaining there are two different Donald Trumps, one that is cerebral and one that is seen on stage.
“We buried the hatchet,” Carson said, addressing political swipes back and forth against each other on the campaign trail. “That was political stuff.”
Trump said Carson will be involved in the educational system in America and healthcare, “where he’s an expert.”
Carson officially suspended his campaign last week after failing to gain traction on Super Tuesday.
Scouring through the polls it's not hard to see very quickly the end result of Super Tuesday.
It's not too shocking that Rubio and the establishment will lose there's no question about that.
However there are only a couple of states that Cruz or Rubio even have a fighting chance of splitting the delegates or tying with Trump.
Below are the states and delegates. Our predictions are based on polls.
Below R is for Republican delegates only.
SUPER TUESDAY
Alabama R50 Trump 45
Alaska R28. Trump 15 Cruz 10
Arkansas R40 Cruz 28 Trump 10
Colorado R37 Carson 15 Rubio 10
Georgia R76 Trump 65 Rubio 10
Massachusetts R42 Trump 35 Rubio 7
Minnesota R38 Trump 30 Rubio 8
OklahomaR43 Trump 25 Cruz 9
Tennessee R58 Trump 25 Carson 25
Texas R155 Trump 75 Cruz 75
VermontR16 Trump 10
Virginia R49 Trump 38
Wyoming R29 Rubio 12 Trump 12
As of 24 FEB 2016
Trump
Current delegates 82 plus Super Tuesday 320 for a total of 467
Cruz
Current delegates 17 plus Super Tuesday 140 for a total of 157.
Rubio
Current delegates 16 plus Super Tuesday 60 for a total of 76.
A new Bloomberg poll of South Carolina shows Donald Trump maintaining a strong lead in the state heading into Saturday’s primary.
Trump has the support of 36 percent of likely Republican voters, followed distantly by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) in second with 17 percent support.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), with 15 percent support, is in third, followed closely by Jeb Bush with 13 percent. Ben Carson has 9 percent, while John Kasich has 7 percent.
The poll, conducted by Iowa’s Ann Selzer, was conducted after the GOP debate last Saturday. The poll doesn’t show any drop in support for Trump following his criticism of former President George W. Bush over the Iraq War.
A slight majority of voters say their minds are made up on which candidate to support, while 43 percent say they could still change their minds. Supporters of both Trump and Cruz, however, are more strongly committed.
Among Cruz supporters, 68 percent say their mind is definitely made up. Among Trump supporters, a similar 63 percent say their mind is made up.
Trump may be benefiting from his tough rhetoric on trade and proposals to impose tariffs on goods imported into the U.S. Only 20 percent of likely Republican voters believe trade deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership help the U.S. economy. A massive 70 percent of voters would support import tariffs and duties on goods manufactured overseas.
A strong dose of caution on this poll is warranted, however, because of its sample make-up. According to this poll, the largest single block of likely voters, 39 percent, describe themselves as “mainstream Republicans,” while only a third, 33 percent, describe themselves as evangelicals. Another 20 percent describe themselves at “Tea Party Republicans.”
In both 2012 and 2008, evangelicals made up more than 60 percent of the Republican primary electorate. One reason the final Bloomberg poll in Iowa was so off was that it significantly undercounted the number of evangelicals in the state. That poll also identified “mainstream Republicans” as the largest likely voting block in Iowa.
In both the Iowa poll and the recent South Carolina poll, Bloomberg has Trump running very strong with “mainstream” Republicans. In both polls, in fact, it is his strongest ideological block of voters.
It is unclear how Bloomberg defines “mainstream” Republican voters. It is clear, however, that they were not the largest block of voters in Iowa. They are unlikley to be the largest block of voters in South Carolina either.
The Bloomberg poll, even with this caveat, does reveal a very interesting piece of information. If, as it expects, “mainstream” Republicans make up the largest block of voters, dwarfing evangelicals and Tea Party supporters, then candidates like Bush, Rubio, and Kasich are in for even more of a struggle than anyone realizes.
If these three are still struggling to gain traction with such a favorable electorate, then they really are candidates and campaigns in search of supporters.
Welcome to Breitbart News’s daily live updates of the 2016 horse race. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Ben Carson will participate in CNN’s town hall event tonight as Donald Trump’s town hall event airs on MSNBC. South Carolina’s Republican primary is on Saturday. Democrats will caucus in Nevada on Saturday.
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Highlights: 2/16/16
•Hillary suffers a nearly 3 minute-long coughing fit •Team Bush, Rubio have spent over $80 million and $50 million on ads respectively •Rubio says he’ll support the GOP nominee in the general, even if it’s Trump or Cruz
Highlights: 2/17/16
•Jeb Bush at 1% in South Carolina poll •Trump doing a phone-in interview on Stephen Colbert’s Late Show •Trump blasting Fox News and Megyn Kelly on Twitter again •Cruz goes off on Trump, Rubio at press conference •South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley endorses Rubio over Jeb
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Tony Lee: Though Jack Welch had high praise for Cruz after the debate, he sounded too much like a lawyer trying to win points in the weeds while going after Trump. Cruz was strong in appealing to conservatives on a host of issues but he could have come across much better if he had remembered that he was in a town hall setting and not in a courtroom tonight.
Earlier in the day, Haley was booed at a Trump town hall event.
Meanwhile, at Trump’s town hall event:
10:55: Cruz says his favorite cocktail is scotch. Guilty pleasure when he wasn’t running for president was watching movies and playing video games. He says Cruz’s iPhone drives his wife crazy because he plays so many games on it. Cooper asks Cruz about his Simpsons/Princess Bride impersonations and Cruz says part of it is “you have to have fun.” He says Republicans reach young people with substance–point out that the Obama economy is hammering them along with the national debt–and loosening up, cracking jokes, and having fun. Cruz talks about the Cruz street art that went viral last year and he pointed out that he decided to have some fun with them by posting on Facebook that he noticed a glaring error in the posters–he doesn’t smoke cigarettes.
10:52: Question is on most important cabinet position. Cruz says it’s a three-way tie between Secretary of State/Secretary of Defense/Attorney General. He says “Winston Churchill is coming back to the Oval Office” when he is president. He says a Secretary of State in a Cruz administration would be someone like John Bolton. He blasts the lawlessness of the Obama administration (“one of the saddest legacies”) and says it is “sad” that the media accepts as a given re: Hillary’s email scandal that whether someone is prosecuted depends on what some hack in the White House thinks. He says the only fidelity in Cruz Department of Justice will be to the law and the Constitution.
10: 47: Cruz says he will use executive actions to end Common Core, undo Obama’s executive amnesty. He will rip up the Iran Deal to “shreds” and move the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem. And re: getting things done legislatively, Cruz points out that the last time conservatives defeated the Washington Cartel was in 1980 when Reagan’s grassroots army defeated the Washington establishment just four years after Reagan almost successfully primaried a sitting GOP establishment GOP president. Cruz would call on his grassroots army to compel Congress to enact his agenda.
10:42: Cruz says he will not respond in kind when others are impugning his character during the campaign. He says people in the GOP establishment say “Ted is unlikable in Washington” because he is keeping his promises to the men and women who elected him like trying to defund Planned Parenthood and leading the fight against Obamacare and the “Rubio-Schumer amnesty bill.”
Cruz says he and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)helped defeat Rubio’s amnesty bill in the House and that is why the D.C. establishment that loves amnesty dislikes him.
10:37: Cruz says Rubio and Trump scream “liar, liar” when Cruz points to their record and calls them out on their past statements. He points out that he was correct in saying that Trump supports Planned Parenthood and Rubio supports 1) giving citizenship to all of the country’s illegal immigrants, 2) granting citizenship to illegal immigrants even if they have criminal convictions, 3) supported in-state tuition for illegal immigrants in Florida, and 4) went on Univision and said in Spanish that he would not rescind Obama’s executive amnesty in his first day in office. Cruz says Rubio never disputed any of the substance. “Truth matters,” Cruz says, adding that Jeff Sessions, Mark Levin, Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), James Dobson, Phyllis Schlafly have also been lying.
10:35: Cruz says he has surged because conservatives trust him more than Trump on judges.
10:33: Cruz says we should not be confirming a Supreme Court nomination during a lame-duck period. He says Scalia, “a lion of the law” single-handedly changed the law and was the Court what Reagan was to the presidency. He says this nomination has the potential to dramatically shift the balance of power on the court and says that 2016 should be a referendum on the Supreme Court.
10:29: Cruz defends his natural-born status and says you cannot write off the possibility of Trump suing him but it will not succeed because it will not be a “meritorious lawsuit.”
10:27: Cruz says America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia has been “fraught with complications.” He blasts the Saudis for paying off terrorists so they don’t destroy the Kingdom and says friends do not fund jihadists who want to kill them. Cruz says oil prices fluctuate because of the Fed and says the Fed should be audited. Cruz also calls for the return to the Gold Standard.
10:22: Cruz says we are seeing an “assault” on religious liberty and Judeo-Christian values. He says life, marriage, and religious liberty are intertwined and says “you should know them by their fruits.” Cruz asks the questioner to ask candidates what they have done to protect life, marriage, religious liberty. He calls the Supreme Court’s gay marriage decision “nothing short of tragic” and blasts establishment Republicans for echoing Obama’s talking points about “settled law.” Cruz says it was a “lawless” and “illegitimate” decision that will not stand because it is inconsistent with the Constitution. Cruz says religious liberty has been a lifelong passion of his and cites his successful defenses of the Pledge of Allegiances, the Ten Commandments. He points out that he also defended the Mojave Desert Veterans Memorial Cross and won 5-4 in the Supreme Court.
10:20: Cruz says it was “ridiculous” that Donald Trump slammed George W. Bush for not keeping the country safe and defended impeaching George W. Bush. He said Trump had no proof that Bush committed “high crimes and misdemeanors.” He says it draws into question Trump’s judgment that he supports views associated with Michael Moore and the fever swamps on the left.
10:17: Cruz blasts GOP candidates for being okay with women being drafted to serve. He says the military should not be engaging social experiments or be governed by “political correctness.” Cruz says “we will not be drafting our daughters into combat on the front lines” if he is president. He says it makes “no sense.” Cruz also blasts the Obama administration’s rules of engagement that tie the arms of our servicemen and women behind their backs.
10:12: Cruz thanks the questioner for his service and says Obama doesn’t “believe in the mission of the military” and weakens and degrades them while not standing by our troops. He says veterans across South Carolina have expressed their frustration. He says after Carter weakened the military, Reagan ushered in an economic boom and rebuilt the military to bankrupt the Soviets and win the Cold War. Cruz says he will unleash the American economy to grow the military in order to defeat ISIS.
He says getting rid of Assad will be worse for America because ISIS will become even more powerful and Syria will become like Libya.
10:10: Cruz mentions his wife is the daughter of missionaries. He says Heidi (his best friend) will be involved in economic development and educational empowerment issues as First Lady. Cruz says school choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century and his wife cares about giving minorities more educational opportunities. He admits that he sings to his wife when he calls her and sings “I just called to say I love you.”
10:06: Cruz smartly punts when he is asked to choose between Clemson and South Carolina. He says he will “shamelessly waffle” and say he “loves them both.”
10:05: Cruz is worried that Obama will give Guantanamo back to Cuba at the end of his term and undermine America’s national security. He blasts Obama for releasing Guantanamo prisoners American soldiers bled and died to capture. He says they will return to the battlefield in the future to harm Americans.
10:02: Cruz on Obama’s plans to visit Cuba. Cruz says he will not visit Cuba as President so long as the Castros are in power. He blasts Obama’s foreign policy for “alienating and abandoning” our friends. He says no administration has been more “hostile” to Israel than the Obama administration. He says Obama should be pushing for a free Cuba and it is a “mistake” for him to visit. He slams the Obama administration for silencing Cuban dissidents and speaks about how his father/aunt were tortured in Cuba.
10:oo: Cruz says Apple should be forced to unlock the phones of the San Bernardino terrorists but not be forced to have backdoor encryption technology in all of their phones.
9:58: Cruz says Trump’s sister is a radical, “pro-abortion” judge and slams Trump for suggesting that his sister would be a great Supreme Court Justice. He also slams Trump for giving to Democrats who are very pro-abortion. He says there is no universe where he could write a check to people like John Kerry and Hillary Clinton and Chuck Schumer. He says anyone who does that does not care about Supreme Court Justices.
9:57: Cruz says Planned Parenthood is the “largest abortionist” in the country and says he doesn’t think Planned Parenthood does “anything wonderful.” He slams Trump, saying he doesn’t think anyone who is pro-life can say that Planned Parenthood does wonderful things. Cruz does not believe Planned Parenthood should
GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson discussed the overwhelming level of support for the Democrat Party among Black Americans during an interview on Breitbart News Daily interview with host Stephen K. Bannon.
Carson says that relationship, “has yielded more poverty and broken homes and crime and incarceration and it’s completely unnecessary.”
“We need to talk about the effects of out of wedlock birth. How that stops that woman’s education and sends that child into poverty,” he later added.
He also cited how not having a father figure has a deleterious effect on young black man coming up, “so that they don’t have a good appreciation of how to react to authority, which leads to a lot of death, which leads to a lot of incarceration.” He also discussed education and “how you can create your own pathway to success” as not having been emphasized enough within the Black community.
Carson also mentioned faith.
Throwing away faith and family are deleterious to any community and it’s extra devastating on the Black community. And I believe that many people who are trying to cultivate their votes know that and are intentionally destroying those pillars of strength to keep people in a dependent position.
When asked about the harshness of that charge, said Carson, “Well, you look at some of these welfare programs that reward people for having babies out of wedlock …that penalize people who have a family structure. There’s a prime example.”
“In the Black community in this country, there is over $1 trillion in assets. There are less than ten countries in the world that have a trillion dollar GDP. Learn how to turn your own dollars over in your own community a couple times before you send them out to create wealth. Reach back, pull other people up with you – you don’t have to be dependent on anybody else,” he added.
Carson encouraged people to review the policies on his website and insisted that he believes he’ll be competitive in South Carolina and is still in the race to win. The Breitbart News daily interview can be heard below.
Few people will talk about this, and fewer will even want to acknowledge it, but what Donald Trump did before the debate even began shows the measure of a real man’s worth.
At the beginning of the ABC debate, each of the candidates were being introduced in a specific order. The first name called to the stage was Chris Christie. The applause was loud and lingered through the time when Martha Raddatz called the second candidate Ben Carson.
Dr. Carson did not hear his name called (easy to understand why when you listen to the video) and stood in the entry-way. The moderators, with their backs to the candidates, didn’t notice his absence and called the third name on the list, Ted Cruz.
Ted walked past Dr. Carson and onto the stage. Carson remained in the awkward, and embarrassing position, ‘no-mans-land’, on-camera but out of sight of the live audience.
What happened next shows the remarkable character of Donald Trump.
The fourth name called was Donald Trump, but by then the back-stage crew and candidates were aware of Dr. Carsons’ position. Trump slowly approached, and then realized the embarrassing position of a fellow candidate hanging in the wind.
Trump showed his leadership by standing right next to his friend, and not walking onto the stage.
The other names continued to be called, and proceeded as mentioned. But not Donald Trump, he remained with his colleague thereby reducing the internal anxiety felt by Carson.
It would have been very easy for Trump to walk by Ben, just like all the other candidates did. But instead he chose to wait, and remove the embarrassment factor by infinite magnitudes.
Then, like a boss, when Dr. Carson was called to the stage, Trump waited and allowed Ben to get the audience response and appreciation. It takes a lot of courage to make split second decisions like this, and it shows a remarkable insight into the man’s character.
People often mistake Donald Trump’s self-confidence for arrogance or even narcissism. But there is not a narcissist on the planet who would have put themselves into a position like that to assist a competing colleague.
New audio obtained exclusively by Breitbart News indicates that as the Iowa caucuses began on Monday night, the Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) campaign called precinct captains informing them that Dr. Ben Carson was suspending campaigning, and instructing them to tell voters they should “not waste a vote on Ben Carson and vote for Ted Cruz.”
The calls were placed after the Carson campaign had already clarified that Carson was not suspending his campaign.
Nancy Bliesman, a precinct captain for Cruz in Crawford County, Iowa, told Breitbart News that she received two voice mails–one at 7:07 p.m. Central Standard Time (CST), and one at 7:29 p.m.–on the night of the Iowa caucuses, which began at 7:00 p.m.
The first call came from a woman with a phone number out of Galveston, Texas at 7:07 p.m. (transcript follows audio):
[inaudible]…from the Ted Cruz campaign, calling to get to a precinct captain, and it has just been announced that Ben Carson is taking a leave of absence from the campaign trail, so it is very important that you tell any Ben Carson voters that for tonight, uh, that they not waste a vote on Ben Carson, and vote for Ted Cruz. He is taking a leave of absence from his campaign. All right? Thank you. Bye.
The second voicemail was left at 7:29 p.m. from an Iowa phone number that Breitbart News traced back to a Cruz campaign volunteer hotline.
Hello, this is the Cruz campaign with breaking news: Dr. Ben Carson will be [garbled] suspending campaigning following tonight’s caucuses. Please inform any Carson caucus goers of this news and urge them to caucus for Ted instead. Thank you. Good night.
“My precinct people voted” without hearing the rumor that Carson would be suspending his campaign, Bliesman told Breitbart News. “Ben Carson did get his votes in our precinct ’cause I didn’t take the calls.”
Bliesman’s husband, who was also with her on Monday night, told Breitbart News that they were at the precinct labeled “DC-A-B,” which stands for the areas of Dow City, Arion and Buck Grove.
According to Mr. Bliesman, the total vote count in the precinct was as follows:
Donald Trump = 33
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) = 15
Ben Carson = 12
Ted Cruz = 12
Carly Fiorina = 3
Jeb Bush = 2
John Kasich = 1
Chris Christie = 1
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) = 0
Ric Santorum = 0
Mike Huckabee = 0
Bliesman said there was a “huge turnout,” adding, “we had probably at least 100 percent increase from four years ago.”
“Everyone knows the mainstream media says things–whether it’s true or not, check it out,” she urged, saying she wishes the Carson campaign had been consulted before the report was spread.
The revelation about Cruz’s campaign calls and voicemails comes after an email surfaced from Cruz’s deputy Iowa campaign director Spence Rogers, sent at 6:56 p.m.–four minutes before caucuses began–suggesting that Carson would be “taking time off from the campaign trail after Iowa and making a big announcement next week.” The email told supporters: “Please inform any caucus goers of this news and urge them to caucus for Ted Cruz.”
Cruz apologized to Carson on Tuesday, saying his team should also have forwarded a subsequent after Carson clarified that he would not be suspending his campaign.
However, the Carson campaign had already clarified at 6:53 p.m. that he was not dropping out.
The original report by Chris Moody of CNN at 6:44 p.m. had reported explicitly that Carson was not suspending his campaign.
On Thursday, he sent a message attacking the Cruz campaign, saying that “no attempts were made to verify the truth” about his departure, and that “no actions have been taken to correct the problem.”
The Cruz campaign referenced a clarifying tweet by CNN’s Chris Moody that was published at 7:30 p.m.
The senator has already apologized for not more quickly making that clarification, and there is no evidence that our sharing of this news story impacted Carson’s campaign – he well outperformed expectations. The voicemails are in line with the reports that were made at that time. Our campaign shared an accurate report that Carson was suspending campaigning after the caucuses – he went home and he went to D.C. – and these voicemails do not suggest that he would completely drop out of the race.
Lastly, it should surprise no one that Carson’s initial announcement he was taking time off the trail would be a news story. It is highly unusual for candidates to take time off the trail between the first voting states.
Carson modestly out-performed his public poll average in Iowa by 1.6%.
Governor Terry Branstad is crediting Ted Cruz for running an “old-fashioned”, 99-county campaign that yielded victory in Monday night’s Iowa Caucuses, but Branstad is joining the chorus criticizing Cruz for “questionable” campaign tactics.
“This thing that they distributed on Caucus night saying that Dr. Carson was likely to drop out and his supporters should support Cruz, that is, I think, unethical and unfair,” Branstad said this morning. “I think there’ll be repercussions to that.”
Cruz has apologized to Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who finished fourth in the Caucuses on Monday night. Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Cruz backer, helped spread the drop out rumor and Branstad said King owes Carson an apology.
“You know, we have a strong sense of fairness in Iowa,” Branstad said during an interview with Radio Iowa. “Distributing information that was not true about a candidate right at the time people are voting in the Caucuses is an inappropriate thing.”
King tweeted: “Carson looks like he’s out” on Caucus night. King has told reporters in Washington, D.C. he had an “obligation” to tell Iowans about a report he’d seen indicating Carson was flying home to Florida Monday night rather than going to New Hampshire. Branstad is not out personally recruiting a Republican to challenge King in a primary this June.
“Yet I think there are a number of people in the renewable fuels industry that are not happy with (King),” Branstad says. “I guess time will tell what happens.”
Branstad is a critic of Cruz’s opposition to the federal ethanol production mandate. Two weeks before the Caucuses Branstad said he hoped Cruz would be defeated — a move Congressman King blasted as a “de facto endorsement” of Donald Trump.
“Well, I did,” Branstad said today of his wish for Cruz’s defeat. “Actually, I think Trump, by skipping the debate, hurt himself.”
Branstad’s 2010 and 2014 campaign managers migrated to New Jersey Chris Christie’s presidential campaign. Christie finished 10th, with fewer than 3300 votes. Branstad said Christie didn’t spend enough time campaigning in Iowa.
“None of the governors did well,” Branstad said. “…Rubio came on strong at the end because people were looking for somebody new.”
The Caucus winner was someone Branstad opposed and Christie finished next to last, but Branstad rejects the notion Monday’s Caucus results are in any way a rebuke of him.
“First of all I’m not running for president. I’ve never had an interest in running for president or national office,” Branstad said. “My focus is on my state and jobs in my state and farm income.”
AUDIO of Radio Iowa’s interview with Governor Terry Branstad
Branstad attended his precinct caucus Monday night, but he is not revealing who he voted for. Branstad said the record turn-out for Monday’s Republican Caucuses was “an encouraging sign” for the fall election, since Iowa is likely to be a toss-up state in the presidential race.
Donald Trump is accusing Republican presidential rival Ted Cruz of committing fraud ahead of Monday night's Iowa caucuses, and he is calling for a "new election."
"Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified," Trump tweeted on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, the real estate mogul tweeted, then quickly deleted, a claim that Cruz didn’t earn a fair victory in Iowa, saying he “illegally stole it.”
"Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa, he illegally stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong any [sic] why he got more votes than anticipated. Bad!" the GOP front-runner tweeted.
It was subsequently replaced with a new tweet that omitted the word “illegally.”
Cruz came under fire in the days leading up to the Iowa caucuses for distributing a misleading mailer that attempted to shame recipients into turning out to vote for the Texas senator.
Following his decisive win over the GOP field, Cruz was accused by fellow presidential candidate Ben Carson of spreading a false rumor that Carson was dropping out of the race in order to sabotage the retired neurosurgeon's campaign.
Republican presidential candidate Ben CarsonBrendan Hoffman—Getty Images
The Carson camp claimed Cruz’s team spread false rumors at caucus sites that Carson had dropped out.
Ben Carson was incensed as the results of Monday night’s Iowa caucuses rolled in, accusing the winner of spreading falsehoods about him at caucus sites.
Carson’s team claimed that Cruz’s 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.
“That is really quite a dirty trick,” Carson said speaking to reporters at the end of the evening. “That’s the very kind of thing that irritated me enough to get into this quagmire.”
“To have campaigns come out and send emails to their caucus speakers suggesting that Dr. Carson was doing anything but moving forward after tonight is the lowest of low in American politics,” said Carson campaign manager Ed Brookover.
“This is horseshit,” Rob Taylor, Iowa state representative and Carson’s Iowa co-chair, said simply.
Members of Carson’s team furnished evidence of various precinct captains alleging misconduct by the Cruz campaign.
Ryan Rhodes, Carson’s Iowa state director, showed reporters a text on his phone from Barbara Heki, a Mike Huckabee supporter. “The 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,” the text read.
Jason Osborne, Carson’s deputy senior strategist, read aloud another missive, this one an email from their precinct chair in Muscatine: “The 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, ‘So you might want to rethink wasting your vote on him.’”
Cruz’s team flatly denies the allegations. “That’s absurd,” spokesperson Catherine Frazier said simply.
With additional reporting by Alex Altman
This article was originally published on Time.com.
According to a just-released poll from Florida Atlantic University broadcast on MSNBC, in a 12 person Republican primary, Donald Trump is blowing the pack away in Florida with an incredible +32 point lead. The billionaire businessman currently enjoys 48% support in the Sunshine State, a +12 point jump from November.
Trump’s closest competition is SenatorSen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who sits at just 16%.
Just as stunning is Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’s collapse in his home state. The Florida Senator lost -7 points, and now sits at just 11%. Jeb Bush, a former two-term Florida governor, sits at just 10%.