Mitch McConnell's Campaign Manager: We Had Nothing to Do with Ted Cruz Oppo Shopping

Mitch McConnell's Campaign Manager: We Had Nothing to Do with Ted Cruz Oppo Shopping

Jesse Benton, the campaign manager for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s re-election campaign, told Breitbart News on Sunday that “of course not,” neither McConnell, nor anyone on his Senate staff or campaign staff, shopped any opposition research on Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) to any members of the media, including Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace.

“Senator Cruz is a friend and valued member of the Republican caucus,” Benton added in an email.

On Sunday morning, Wallace announced that “top” GOP establishment figures were shopping opposition research on Cruz. “I will tell you I have never in my time in Washington seen a party so upset with one of its own members,” Wallace said Sunday morning in an appearance on Fox 5 Washington, D.C., previewing Fox News Sunday. 

“Since we announced that Ted Cruz was going to be on the show, I’ve been getting background research and questions going after Cruz not from Democrats but from other Republicans,” Wallace said. “They really feel he has put them in this corner that they can’t get out of gracefully and they’re not very happy with him.”

As Breitbart News’ Tony Lee reported, later on his show Fox News Sunday, Wallace said that “top Republicans” gave him “unsolicited research and questions” to “hammer” Cruz.

Shortly thereafter, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called on Wallace to release the names of those “top Republicans” who were trying to “trash” Cruz.

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