However unlikely the Rubio story was, it seems nearly inevitable that the Cruz campaign’s effort to portray its candidate as the one true Christian in the race would have eventually met a snag. Finally, when the student reporter who posted the fake Rubio video, and who was relied on by the Cruz campaign, was asked about it, he responded with obscenities. In fact, just last night the Cruz campaign allegedly wanted to use the Rubio campaign’s outrage as a tool to show the hot-headedness of Marco Rubio. The Daily Pennsylvanian at first reported that Rubio, referencing the Bible, said, “Not many answers in there”.
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Cruz said that he “asked for Rick Tyler’s resignation” Monday, after “investigating” the incident. “So I understand, I guess one of their spokespersons apologized and I’ll accept his apology, but this is a pattern now and I think we’re now at a point where we start asking about accountability”.
“I want to apologize to Senator Marco Rubio for posting an inaccurate story about him earlier today”. I assumed wrongly that the story was correct.
Within hours of his 9:30 a.m. television appearance, Cruz asked Tyler to resign.
“Rick is a really good spokesman who had the unenviable task of working for a candidate willing to do or say anything to get elected”, Conant told NBC News’ Gabe Gutierrez.
The 21-second video shows Rubio strolling through a hotel lobby past Rafael Cruz and a staffer; then he pauses and looks down at the Bible the staffer is reading. Officials from the Daily Pennsylvanian declined our offer to speak on camera about the situation, but their website has since removed the captions saying Rubio badmouthed the good book., although the raw video remains online along with a correction of their previous report. Marco Rubio trashing the Bible in front of Cruz’s evangelical preacher father and one of his staffers.
In a statement, Tyler blamed unclear audio for the confusion and deleted his post, which contained the video. The California congressman predicted voters in Florida, Rubio’s home state, would determine whether Rubio continues or Trump easily rolls on to the nomination.
Next Rick Tyler will spread the damaging rumor that Marco Rubio saw a single set of footsteps on a sandy beach and didn’t reverently murmur, “That’s where He carried me”.
Trump, who for weeks lambasted Cruz over the Texas senator’s campaign tactics in Iowa, weighed in on Twitter to claim the firing was the latest example of the Cruz campaign’s “dirty tricks”.
Clinton is expected to add to her delegate tally with a win in Saturday’s Democratic primary in SC, where polls show her with strong support among African-Americans who make up more than half of the Democratic electorate.
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Rubio is trying to set himself up as the candidate of the party establishment after former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush quit the race after a disappointing fourth-place finish in SC.
