Carson accuses Cruz camp of spreading false rumors on campaign suspension

February 02, 2016
FoxNews.com


Dr. Ben Carson slams Ted Cruz's Iowa victory

Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson on Tuesday pointedly accused Ted Cruz’s campaign of spreading false rumors during the Iowa caucuses claiming the retired neurosurgeon was suspending his bid, in a coordinated effort to seal Cruz’s victory Monday night.

The stunning charge came as a Carson spokesman declared, “There has never been a more tainted victory in the Iowa caucuses.”

Early reports that Carson – who was directly competing with Cruz for social conservative and evangelical supporters – was leaving the campaign trail started to surface as caucusing began Monday evening.

Upon hearing reports that their candidate was leaving the trail to return to his home in Florida, Team Carson responded swiftly, saying the retired neurosurgeon was only going home for clean clothes but was then headed to New Hampshire for the Feb. 9 primary.

But Carson told Fox News Tuesday morning that Cruz supporters and representatives took that narrative a step further, and began telling caucus-goers at “many” precincts that he was dropping out.

The retired neurosurgeon, interviewed on “Fox & Friends,” said that his supporters were told “voting for me was wasting their vote, and that they should reconsider.”

On Tuesday morning, Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler tried to defend their campaign, telling MSNBC that the campaign simply repeated what Carson had said: that after Iowa, he was returning to Florida for a couple of days, then going to Washington for the National Prayer Breakfast.

“That told us he was not going to New Hampshire,” Tyler said. “That was not a dirty trick.”

Carson ended up finishing a distant fourth in Iowa, with 9 percent, while Cruz claimed a big victory over Donald Trump. Cruz, a Texas senator, had 28 percent, and Trump had 24 percent. How much the drop-out rumors may have affected that count is unclear. But the interactive caucus process does offer an opportunity for supporters of one candidate to be persuaded to change sides before casting their ballot.

The usually mild-mannered Carson accused the other side of using the process to execute “dirty tricks.”

“It’s the exact thing the American people are tired of,” he said. “Why would we want to continue with this kind of shenanigans?”

He said his suspicions were also confirmed by tweets, “other correspondence,” and a first-hand experience by his wife at a precinct.

Carson said his wife Candy arrived at the precinct to learn that a Cruz supporter was “disseminating” the misinformation and was asked to set straight the record.

“She did, and we won that precinct,” he said.

One of the tweets, Carson noted, came from Rep. Steve King, a Cruz supporter and an influential Iowa Republican.
The tweet: sent at 8:20pm: Carson looks like he is out. Iowans need to know before they vote. Most will go to Cruz, I hope.

Carson said if Cruz was unaware of the tactics, then he should find out who was involved and fire them. And if Cruz knew about the effort, he should admit his involvement and “offer a solution,” Carson said.

The Cruz campaign is also taking heat for a “mailer” it sent out to potential voters before caucus night that seemingly accused them of voting violations.

Tyler earlier told MSNBC that Iowans are used to getting similar ones and that the campaign “modeled ours after them.”

"Politics"

as usual.

Geno

PS, do folks really expect ANY of them to "play fair"?

this is politics.

It won't be the last thing like this the Cruz campaign does in an attempt to win.

Actually, it's a federal crime.

Maybe he is establishing his bona fides with the Dems for the General.

It's all over the cable news networks and ever Rush Limbaugh was talking about what a dirty trick it was.

This is going to become a never ending story, especially since the main person it helps is Rubio.

Which part exactly is a federal crime?

Absolutely splendid

This looks worse than it is, although sometimes, that's all it takes to kill a campaign. Look at Howard Dean's famous screech rant- dead overnight. The bottom line is that if there was any question about the validity of this, would a Carson person take Ted Cruz's team mates word for it? That would be kind of stupid. If I was a Carson fan and I saw this tweet, I would ask myself, "why didn't I hear from the Carson camp about this?" Or I would simply ask for confirmation before changing my vote.

Cruz is a career politician who is hated by everyone no shocker here.

That's very possible.

Cruz just couldn't keep his sneaky, back stabbing nature hidden,...and it's going to cost him.

For Ben Carson to come out of his coma long enough to open his eyes and make a statement condemning Cruz, it has to be dirty.

Cruz is gonna get gut stabbed if he pisses Carson off.

In all seriousness, Carson doesn't strike me as the type to speak out something like this until he felt it was pretty underhanded.

Ever since he has started campaigning for potus he has been nothing but extremely honorable.

Cruz is a lying stack of chit politician....Puckingg Rino...

The Cruzettes ain't gonna like this, nope, not one bit!

Waah...

So Carson did leave for home and isn't headed right to New Hampshire instead to DC. The Cruz campaign simply stated what has ended up happening. Carson wasn't going to be viable last night or in the future. This was, is and will be a 3 man race moving forward. Yes I like Ben Carson but reality is reality.

Look be careful automatically saying this was malicious keep mind a campaign has a lot of moving parts. I think it would be easy to think this about Carson after hearing his future plans. That conclusion got exaggerated by campaign workers excited about their candidate.

More chickenCruz bullCruz.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/201...cruz-camp-of-foul-play-at-iowa-caucuses/

The Cruz camp sent this out at 7:01 PM.

“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.

** Rep. Steve King (R-IA) who was campaigning with Ted Cruz today tweeted this out during the caucuses tonight.

"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

And the Cruz campaign sent out this message despite the fact that the Carson rumor had already been denied by the Carson team.

ChickenCruz initially denied this had happened, of course.

When confronted with the truth, Chickencruz "apologized".

But hey, he did what he had to do, like always.

It's great to see Trump fans looking out for all contenders


Winning isn't important, its how you play the game. LOL

I bet his wife was in on it too. And the kids. Can't leave them out.

No doubt true as we keep hearing it from those who oppose him!GW

The worst part about this for Cruz is that there was a very high possibility that if Carson dropped out, he may have endorsed Cruz or at the very least, he would have gotten most of Carson's voters. Carson and Cruz have very similar voters. Now, they may go somewhere else out of protest if Carson does drop out.

Fair doesn't have anything to do with attorneys, politics and war! GW

Yeah. That's why Cruz chose to steal Carson's instead of another candidate's. Cruz knew that Carson was pulling in evangelical votes and that if he could convince them that Carson was out of the race, Carson's votes would get absorbed by Cruz.

Poor Carson. It might have turned out better had he not wanted to take guns away from city folks.

Cruz didn't need to steal Carson's votes. Trump gave him a pile by being Trump.

Maybe not. But he did it anyway.

Too funny.

And to think that on top of his gifts, he still received the 2nd highest GOP caucus vote in your state's history.

The greatest gift Iowa gave to Trump though was the Cruz win. For that,the Trump supporters thank the good citizens of Iowa.

You're right. That's too funny.

I've been trying to find one news outlet that had a dialog different than it's now all Trump and Rubio. I can't find one...anywhere.

Has anyone else had any luck in this regard?

Actually Carson did better than polls showed in Iowa. Trump gave him some too.

Not sure if anyone published this yet, but Cruz may not even have known that King was going to send out that Tweet. You all know I am a Cruz fan, but this sucks for him. And even if he knew nothing about it, unlike the Clintons who would throw there own mother under the bus to avoid blame for anything, it is unlikely Cruz will throw King under the bus. In the end, it doesn't matter, he's guilty by association. It will be interesting to see how it plays out. My suspicion is that Rubio will benefit and take advantage of this opportunity.

Which points out perfectly the man's nature and character.

Cruz's HS apology is falling on deaf ears.

Bob this is what Winners look like

For all you jumping out and condemning his nature and character, do you know for a fact that he himself knowingly approved the Tweet in an attempt to steal votes from Carson? That's what you are saying. If you have that proof, post it. Otherwise, this is all your unproven opinion, and the rest of us will treat it as such.

Is it because Ben Carson's black Bob?

I thought Carson dropped out a month ago.

BTW, nobody really cares about this.

I don't worry about things like that. I vote my own way, not what the news tells me. miles

Was it a Ron Paul news letter, or infowars maybe?

This is probably what happened. Some staffer probably read and misinterpreted a Tweet or text message about Carson "heading home". That staffer probably told Steve King because Cruz was busy doing something else. King got excited for his friend and before doing due diligence, he Tweeted out the message. Cruz probably didn't even know he had done it at the time. Either that or King came in and told Cruz that Carson had dropped out, and he believed him. There was probably not any collusion to intentionally steal votes from Carson. It was probably something Cruz was told and he made the same mistake that any of us in a position of leadership have made and he believed his people. Then when the truth was figured out, he was guilty by association. He does need to be held accountable for what his people do or say that reflects on him. But to say he knowingly stole votes from Carson is another story.

Ted apologizes

video

That's about all he can do at this point. It's in Carson's hands now. If he shrugs off the apology, this will linger as a festering wound. If he accepts the apology in earnest, this will be nothing in a week.

If Cruz knew or not is besides the point. King is his man and Cruz is responsible for his conduct on his behalf and King thought it would be ok. You lay down with dogs you wake with fleas. I've grown up around enough of the Christian in word not heart types here in the south to recognize who Cruze is.

A trump supporter that can recognize a holy man. Thats rich

Of course he's accountable for what people do around him. No one has deputed that. But unless you have any proof that he knowingly deceived anyone other than your dogs with fleas theory, I'm going to treat it as nothing more than that, a theory. And you're entitled to it. I just don't have to agree.

You of all people need to STFU you have no room to talk about anything , you are a [bleep] POS pervert.

No, Cruz for brains, that's *not* what happened.

Ted Cruz campaigners thought Carson was out, if you believe that BS.

Regardless of that, TC's people asked Carson if he was quittin.

Carson said no.

THEN:

The "Ted Cruz 2016" account sent a communication claiming Carson was dropping out of the race, and instructing all Cruzons to report this "fact" to the public at the caucuses, and set forth the strategy to be employed: that Carson supporters were to be told their vote wouldn't count, and to switch their vote to Cruz.

The communication went out at 7:01 p.m., right at the start of the caucuses.

King picked it up from the Cruzons that got the message.

Cruz initially denied it had happened, til he was slapped in the face with the evidence.

Then he apologized, but offered no regret or attempt to reconcile or correct the situation.

http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/201...cruz-camp-of-foul-play-at-iowa-caucuses/

Whether it was Cruz or one of his staff matters less than the votes that should have gone to Dr Carson didnt.
... and "sorry" seems to fall a bit short of making things right.

the apology (to me at least) seemed very much like his "Poison Pill" explanation that he gave to MK (made up to look like a Vampire Streetwalker) of FNC fame, in that he needed to explain away something that made him look something less than savory.... and is beginning to remind me of a certain wrinkled serial liar who is married to a serial sex predator.

Lets hope this is the last time RC needs to explain away anything, and that a person of character occupies the White House in 2017.

Which candidate is a "person of character?"

Well, let's see:

Theodore and his chipmunks get caught red-handed.

Denies it happened.

When he can't deny it anymore, he:

Blames it on a video.

Said somebody else was responsible, and that that person did what he had to do.

Says I won the election, so.........., sorry.

Now let's move on, nobody ever held responsible, just one o' those things.

What difference, at this point, does it make?

Where have I seen this before, the Munsters?

No, that's not it..........

if someone held a revolver to my head and I had to give the correct answer? Ben Carson .

He doesnt have a snowballs chance of being elected though.

Trump disciples are such an ethical lot. Bwhahahaha

Even I didn't imagine their whining would be so loud.

Here's the tweet that started it all.

CNN Politics
✔ ‎@CNNPolitics

After the #IAcaucus, @RealBenCarson plans to take a break from campaigning http://cnn.it/Iowa http://cnn.it/1WYvJ0J

6:52 PM - 1 Feb 2016

If any more proof was needed, this thread proves that Trumpeteers are every bit as thin skinned as their clay-footed idol. They can dish it out but they can't take it.

Wait til the Hillary murder squad rolls out their bag of tricks. It'll take a man with Cruz's guts to relegate the Clintonstas to the gallery of criminals where they belong - once and for all!

Let's keep our eye on the prize - no more communists in the WH ever again!!

I've been told that Cruz is a nasty guy...........

Right? The telling thing is that they haven't been able to pin anything legitimate on Cruz yet. The more people try to make mountains out of mole hills the more America loves Cruz for being honest. It must be frustrating for the guys playing politics.

Like a good Cruzon, half a spun story is always the best one.

Yes, Cruz supporters saw what CNN had reported.

Then, they asked Carson if it was true. Carson said no.

Then, at 7:01 p.m., the message from "Ted Cruz 2016" was:

"CNN is reporting that Ben Carson will stop campaigning after Iowa. Make sure to tell all your peers at the caucus supporting Carson that they should coalesce around the true conservative that will be in the race for the long hall: Ted Cruz."

A later message encouraged Cruzons to tell Carson supporters that their vote for Carson was wasted and to switch to Cruz.

No doubt about the malice, intent and lack of honesty.

what he said


if I had to implicitly trust one of the candidates to do the right and honorable thing by my family it would be Carson


but you're correct that he's not going to be elected and unfortunately in this day and age, being of good character sadly may not be the thing we need most in a President.


good lord but we've screwed up a good thing here

Talk about spin...that was from a campaign worker at Ted Cruz 2016. You guys are pitiful.

And we all know Lois Lerner never talked to O'Buckwheat, and Hitlery never knew it wasn't about a video.

Randy, I read this morning that Ben Carson led the entire field of candidates when to came to $$$ contributed from Montanan donators.


$600k if I remember correctly.


Peanuts compared to other states but I remember thinking it was cool that Ben was a favorite of our state.

I like him but as you said very small chance of winning.

Don't have a coronary, it's going to be okay. We get it, you hate Cruz, I pretty sure everyone understands that. For the time being, I'm going to wait for more information, other than from you, to come out before making my final decision on what I think about all this. This happened 1 day ago and probably half what you've heard at this point is questionable. If it seems that he knowingly authorized the release of a deceptive announcement, that will have an impact on how I feel about the guy. But for now, given how unreliable political news is during this election cycle, I'm going to wait for more evidence.

Amen, and he is the last person Cruz ever intended to dis. Carson wasn't a contender and Cruz wants his endorsement. Shlt happens and unscrupulous types will always take advantage of it.

I believe he's a good honest candidate. His weird ass stand on guns did him in though.

Carson was ill prepared if he had to go all the way home to get some clothes. Come on man!

What?

He was on Hannity today and he explained that he wanted some new suits and his tailor was in Florida. He also said he understood CNN was responsible for the debacle and he didn't like it.

Outlawidiot,

Your projection of hate onto people questioning Cruzzzzzz, is eerily reminiscent of an O'Buckwheat tactic. What a surprise.

Do I get to be a racist next? Can't wait.

Your butthole buddy is "BusTed", and it's as simple as that.

When you come to the fire with a moronic suggestion that we should not believe our lyin' eyes, believe what Theodore is tellin us, you got two problems:

1 That act is stale; and

2 This is the fire, not a buncha democrats. Ain;t nobody but a democrat dumb enough they don't know what the definition of "is" is.

And the let's wait for more evidence BS? Hilarious. Just like we're waitin on fast and furious evidence, and IRS evidence, and Benghazi evidence, right?

Cruzzzzzz is a democrat in R clothing.

Were he really a master debater as alleged, he'd have already gathered his *own* evidence, stated the facts to the audience of the american people, and made his argument for justification. Still waitin.

I take your not going to apologize to Ted for spreading false information?

Tff

I think he's in that "anger" stage.

I hope they don't go onto the freeway and start stopping traffic.

The usual Cruzon circle jerk, complete with smilies.

You two should get a room.

BTW, ltffool, Carson has come out demanding Cruzzzz fire the individuals responsible for the fraud.

Hey, I wasn't trying to get personal about it. I just said I'm going to wait for more information. Your posts come across as if you're about to blow a vein from your forehead. Fine, if you want to get personal about it, that's up to you. We all have our own opinions on these different candidates, and we all have loyalties to one cause or another. Just because I am not ready to jump to the same conclusions as you are doesn't make me an idiot.

Like you GAF about Carson. Your crying gets funnier by the minute.

First, a hater, now it's just because "its personal".

Careful, or you'll run out of deflections.

Sooooooooo, you don't have a refutation of any fact posted, you just don't want to believe them?

Waaaa....

Who do I trust, Cruz or CNN? Gee thats a hard one.

just further confirms my belief there's some damn fine folks live in Montana




good lord you'd think we could find one or two of those types to post here at the fire

but no dice so far



jk, you've always been one of my faves on the 'fire here Sammo and I think lots of other old coots feel the same about ya

Another deflection. Be very careful not to address the facts.

However, it is true that IDGAF about Carson, I'm just tormenting the unbalanced.

It's the most popular sport on the innanet.

That bein said, It's apparent Cruz, or his people, f'ed up here.

Is anyone gonna be held accountable? Or is this gonna be a demorat scandal?

No, I just don't consider you my official source of information. I'll do my own due diligence and come to my own conclusions.

.....aaaaah

Right after you get to the bottom of FnF, IRS and Benghazi, right?

Open a little wider, bitch4queer is almost there............

Cruz didn't help get hillary elected, trump did.

Why are you so angry? Trump came in second. That's pretty good.

Cruz reminds me of that guy that sits in the third row of church that you wouldn't dare leave your kids alone with.

I don't even know WTF you're talking about now. All I said, about a half dozen times now, is that I was going to do some more due diligence from a variety of source and draw my own conclusions. I have no idea why Fast and Furious, the IRS and Benghazi somehow got into a thread about a Ted Cruz Tweet.

This is a serious waste of time, I need a break. I have so much more important things to worry about than this "discussion".

It's gotta be driving the Trump supporters of good character (and there are many) CRAZY to know that all the kooks are on their side.

No big deal..Carson should be thinking of getting out..

He mentioned that too. He expected to run out of money before he ran out of votes and he hasn't been happy with his standing for a long time. Apparently, he's looking for guilt votes now.

There are several Trump supporters that I have a lot of respect for. People with whom I have agreed on many issues. We happen to disagree on this candidate for a variety of reasons and we debate back and forth to try and understand why people have their positions. Because of our loyalties, the discussion can get heated and childish sometimes as we let our emotions get the best of us. And if I have done that to people, I apologize. This thread has pretty much gone straight to the unhinged category though and has basically become a waste of time.

One of my best friends is a Trump guy. We (dis)cussed it a lot Saturday evening and it boils down to the fact that he believes everybody in Washington is a crook and he thinks that Trump will "get even" with them. Like the guys here, he could care less how bad a guy Trump is. For that matter, the worse the better. He wants revenge and doesn't expect anything to get better because of Trump...just worse for the people he blames his misery on.

And he's a psychologist.

Actually, as a Trump supporter, I'm a bit dismayed by the fact that Republican voters are missing a chance to put a leader into office because they've been fooled by a slick talking Canadian lawyer who moved to Texas, put on a pair of cowboy boots, picked up a bible, and is making the attempt to ride both of them into the White House.

I think Cruz supporters mean well,...but be damned if y'all ain't a naive bunch.

Boom, nailed it.

Whatever. Trump can't beat Rubio.

Republicans make it hard to be a Republican.

Relax, Trump should win New Hampshire. He just tweeted that they're his type of people, unlike Iowa.

Look in the mirror byatch

You're friends with a psychologist?


You might want to see a psychologist.




Dave

This is pretty good news. Everyone sees what a slimeball Cruz and his camp are and it will likely open up more eyes to some leaning in his direction. His supporters might be smirking about what happened but they likely won't be very happy when his support starts to dwindle.


It's inevitable.

When it does, we 'll have something in common.

Like you are going to vote for Carson!
If not then STFU !
If Carson would know how to pack a suitcase none of this would have happened.
If Carson thinks that Cruz had anything to do with this..then he is Not a very good judge of character.

No harm No foul!
Cruz should have tweeted Carson, "S×it Happens" bro..still got you on my short list for Surgeon General !

Yeah...good call. 20 years of police work drove him insane.

Just because Trump is a good leader doesn't make him a good president for my principles. Hilter was a hell of a leader. I'm not naive at all. Trump doesn't represent my values.

No one will be happy when It's Rubio
Are there any Rubio supporters here,I haven't seen any?

That's what he gets for working.





Dave

He represents mine very well.

Go TRUMP.




Dave

Furbuttski gets this way when the neighbor's cat is away for a few days and he has to pump his fist.

We are surrounded by idiots.

CNN screwed up and put out a false story about Carson.

So lets all jump on Cruz because somebody on his team ran with a story reported by CNN.

Cruz: “I apologize to Dr. Carson.” CNN should be doing the apologies.

Meanwhile, Trump keeps running up his personal insults totals and that is just ever so fine.

Well Cruz represents my values plus he is more likeable and the Establishment Fears and Hates which is all the more reason to support and VOTE for him.
Last chance for America or we fall into the abyss