Ted Cruz Apologizes to Ben Carson for ‘Mistake’ on Carson Dropout Rumors

GOP presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) apologized for his campaign’s role in alleged dropout rumors regarding Dr. Ben Carson ahead of the Iowa caucus on Monday.

Cruz apologized during a radio interview with Boston radio host Jeff Kuhner on Tuesday acknowledging, “What the team didn’t do is, subsequently, the Carson campaign put out a statement clarifying that he was not suspending his campaign, and the team did not forward that statement to the supporters as well. That was a mistake.”

Late on Monday night, Carson alleged that Cruz’s campaign of “dirty tricks” – specifically spreading a false report by CNN that said Carson wasn’t heading straight to New Hampshire or South Carolina after the Iowa caucus, suggesting he was getting out of the race.

The Cruz campaign sent the CNN report to supporters, but said it was a “mistake” that it didn’t subsequently send Carson’s campaign statement that corrected any rumor that Carson was withdrawing from the race.

“Yesterday when CNN reported and put up a post that Carson was not continuing on to New Hampshire and was not continuing on to South Carolina, but instead was flying home to Florida, our political team forwarded that story to our supporters,” Cruz stated. “What the team didn’t do is, subsequently, the Carson campaign put out a statement, clarifying that he was not suspending his campaign, and the team did not forward that statement to the supporters as well. That was a mistake. It was mistake for us not to have forwarded the second statement as well. And I apologize to Ben for our not forwarding that second statement.”