Ben Carson is cutting back his staff in his presidential run.
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MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) – With one primary contest over and another three days away, the Republican Party’s leading presidential candidates will meet on the debate stage once again Saturday night – with a new sense of urgency.
Carson countered by noting that CNN corrected its report on Twitter just a minute later and questioned why it took so long for the Cruz team to correct its report.
But Cruz stuck to his story, telling reporters, “Our political team passed on a CNN news story that CNN wrote”.
But that’s not what happened, a fact that was quickly pointed out by several fact-checkers. “And I told him that I regretted what happened, but I said also, that knowing what I know now, I would not have sent the very tweet that I did”.
In a strongly worded statement on Wednesday evening, CNN said, “Senator Cruz’s claims about CNN are false”.
Tom Foreman: At no time did CNN say that Ben Carson was dropping out of this race [ME: Cruz never said CNN said any such thing], not online, not on-air, not anywhere.
“Hello, this is the Cruz campaign with breaking news: Dr. Ben Carson will be suspending campaigning following tonight’s caucuses”.
I don’t think Carson’s annoyance at Cruz is insincere, but given that there’s still zero evidence that Cruz’s “trick” made any meaningful difference to the outcome (where are the interviews with angry Carson supporters in Iowa who switched to Cruz under false pretenses?), the fact that we’re on day four of the outrage seems odd.
On the night of the Iowa caucuses, CNN reported that Carson would not immediately travel to New Hampshire and SC.
As voters in Iowa headed to the caucuses, the Cruz campaign sent a message urging Ben Carson supporters to switch their support to Cruz because Carson was dropping out of the race. I wish that our campaign staff had forwarded that statement.
ABC News brought up the incident at the debate on Saturday, asking Carson if Cruz should take further action following the drama on caucus night.
As for saying that CNN “simultaneously” reported that Carson would continue campaigning, that’s technically true and CNN didn’t unfairly report the details of Carson’s decision.
Well, Carson did not drop out and various Republican campaigns are accusing Cruz’s campaign of spreading lies.
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, a Republican who wanted Cruz defeated because of his opposition to federal ethanol support, criticized the Cruz campaign for its tactics. He asked me then, he said, ‘Ted, would you make this apology in public.’ I said, ‘yes, I will.’ And I did so. Dr. Carson did the same when speaking to his supporters who were excitedly looking to New Hampshire to encourage Americans to “heal + inspire + revive”. Seven candidates are scheduled to meet on the debate stage, and some won’t be viable after New Hampshire’s primary Tuesday.
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. A finish lower than first or second in Iowa meant that the field operation would be affected, the source said.
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CNN reported on television that, unlike the other candidates, Carson would not travel to New Hampshire or SC.
