Politics is a full-contact sport but its not OK to hit below the belt. Ben Carson Donald Trump and Marco Rubio spent last week blaming frontrunner Sen. Ted Cruz for a problem that originated from Team Carsons own disorganizationeven after media records and Iowa exit poll data cleared Cruz. Before you vote in your primary you deserve the truth.
You dont have to be a politician to tell the truth" Carson quipped in a recent debate. No you dont. So lets start telling the truth. Unless youre now a politician.
Carson finished 4th in the February 1 Iowa caucus. Cruz finished 1st followed by Trump and Rubio respectively. Carson claims he was cheated out of votes because reports circulatedminutes before the caucuses beganthat he was dropping out.
Carsons mismanagement of his campaign communication led CNN to report on TV (video here) and on Twitter that he was dropping out of the race. The Rubio and Cruz campaigns re-shared this news.
Rubio denied doing so on Fox News: Youll never hear about me making up rumors that someone is dropping out in order to try to get votes." But investigative journalist Jennifer Burke showed that Team Rubio did disseminate the CNN report perhaps even more aggressively than Team Cruz. Rubio persisted in blaming Cruz for an activity that his own campaign partook in last week in New Hampshire: Obviously weve all seen the reports of the rumors that he spread about Ben Carson."
Heres an excerpt of the CNN TV report:
CNNS DANA BASH: Our Chris Moody is breaking this news that Ben Carson is gonna go back to Florida to his home…regardless of how he does… Hes going to go there for several days. And then afterwards hes not gonna go to New Hampshire. Hes not gonna go to South Carolina hes going to go to Washington D.C… for the National Prayer Breakfast … where he got himself on the political map. …Very unusual!"
CNNS JAKE TAPPER: Plus hes already announced that hes going to be coming out and speaking at 9:15 local 10:15 Eastern no matter whether or not we know the results because he wants to get home…
BASH: Look if you want to be President of the United States you dont go home to Florida. …Thats the end of the story.
CNN didnt do its homework in its haste to break" a story. Instead CNN led viewers to believe that a vote for Carson was a wasted vote. The bigger problem however is Carsons response.
NUMBERS DONT LIE
Given that the CNN story broke minutes before official voting it had little impact. We know this by analyzing the official 2016 Iowa caucus exit numbers. If you click the link and scroll to the section titled When did you finally decide whom to support in todays caucus?" youll find these key facts:
Rubio: If anyone benefited from the last-minute report that Carson was dropping out it was Rubio who leads the top four Republican candidates with the number of voters who decided to vote for him just today."
Cruz: He has the highest number of voters who said they decided a week" or a month" priorto the Iowa caucus to vote for him. So a bulk of Cruz voters came to the caucus knowing that Cruz was their guy. They were uninfluenced by last minute news reports.
Overall: Trump and Cruz have the highest number of voters who said they decided more than a month" before the caucus to vote for their candidates. Rubio was far behind in this regard and Carson has the fewest number of voters in this category.
Translation: if anyone benefited from indecisive last minute voters it was Rubio! Cruz and Trumps voters already had their minds made up.
Cruz personally visited all 99 Iowa counties. His hard work paid off. Cruz has the highest number of voters (36) who answered Yes" to the question: Did anyone personally contact you about coming out today to support your candidate?" Guess who has the fewest? Carson (10).
Cruz braved the snow and humbly appeared before small crowds in quaint rural towns. Carson didnt have a solid ground game. Even on the day of the caucus he was counting down the seconds until he could jet home to sunny Florida.
WILL CARSON PRAY FOR CNN?
Carson said he would pray" for Trump after Trump deliberately questioned his mental stability. But I guess hes not praying for CNN or Cruz after this mistake.
I dont want a person thats got pathological disease" Trump said about Carson. If youre pathologicaltheres no cure for that folks. Theres no cure for that." Trump said that on purpose. Trump also intentionally stood before a huge crowd of Iowa voters and moved his belt buckle around while mocking and discrediting Carsons childhood story of failing to stab a friend because of the friends belt buckle. Oddly Carson never blamed his downward spiral from first place in Iowamonths agoto fourth today on Trumps purposeful slander.
Which is worse a mistake or intentional slander? Carson acts like the mistake is worse.
Instead of praying for CNN Carson urged the media to crucify Cruz. He demanded an apology from Cruz and told him to fire his staffers. Cruz out of total graciousness made the mistake of apologizing to Carson. Carson responded like a petulant child and continued to tweet all last week about dirty tricks."
But Cruz wouldnt let an ABC reporter bully him with the dirty tricks line: Is it a dirty trick to pass on your news stories? Youre in the business. Would you think it was if I forwarding an ABC story or just a dirty trick to pass on CNN stories?"Boom.
THE MOST DECENT MAN"
Ben Carson has a reputation for being honorable. I personally have admired him for years using my columns to lavish praise upon his work as a surgeon and politician. I even dedicated a portion of my book to laud his healthcare reform plan. So Im heartbroken and disappointed by his recent behavior.
The stakes are too high to let Carsons claim of being cheated in Iowa go unchecked. We will lose the White House in 2016 to a socialist (Bernie) or a woman who treats confidential emails like cotton candy (Hillary) if we run a weak candidate. Last week Carson fired over 50 of his staffers. His campaign had no traction going into Iowa. So why is he selfishly spreading rumors about the strongest Republicancandidate? Attention? Book sales? A TV gig? Who knows.
WORDS CAN NEVER HURT ME
Donald Trump immediately took advantage of Carsons claims and demanded a new election." His sidekick Sarah Palin piped up on Facebook about dirty tricks." Cruz pushed back saying: It seems his reaction to everything is to throw a fit and I understand that Donald finds it very hard to lose. But at the end of the day the people of Iowa spoke."
Trump curled up with his proverbial security blanket and quickly changed his tune from mean to docile. (Its dangerous to bully a strong man. Youre liable to get hurt.) Within hours Trump was telling talk radio host Hugh Hewitt that he has always liked" Cruz and would consider Cruz for his VP. What a pivot!
A doctor. A businessman/reality-television star. Carson and Trump revel in their outsider" status. Trump insists that he is pure as snowincapable of being influenced by lobbiesbecause he self-finances." Carson reminds us that he is not a politician"even as he runs for president.
The presidential race is the Super Bowl of politics. Just as it would be unsportsmanlike for the losing football team to falsely accuse the winner of cheating to hide its own lack of preparation it is very unsportsmanlike for Carson Trump and Rubio to call Cruz a cheat to mask their own weak ground games in Iowa.
Now you know the rest of the story. Ben Carson is now a politician. Share the truth. The stakes are high.
Katie Kieffer is the author of a new book published by Random House LET ME BE CLEAR: Barack Obamas War on Millennials and One Womans Case for Hope." She writes a weekly column for Townhall.com. She also runs KatieKieffer.com.
Politics is a full-contact sport but its not OK to hit below the belt. Ben Carson Donald Trump and Marco Rubio spent last week blaming frontrunner Sen. Ted Cruz for a problem that originated from Team Carsons own disorganizationeven after media records and Iowa exit poll data cleared Cruz. Before you vote in your primary you deserve the truth.
You dont have to be a politician to tell the truth" Carson quipped in a recent debate. No you dont. So lets start telling the truth. Unless youre now a politician.
Carson finished 4th in the February 1 Iowa caucus. Cruz finished 1st followed by Trump and Rubio respectively. Carson claims he was cheated out of votes because reports circulatedminutes before the caucuses beganthat he was dropping out.
Carsons mismanagement of his campaign communication led CNN to report on TV (video here) and on Twitter that he was dropping out of the race. The Rubio and Cruz campaigns re-shared this news.
Rubio denied doing so on Fox News: Youll never hear about me making up rumors that someone is dropping out in order to try to get votes." But investigative journalist Jennifer Burke showed that Team Rubio did disseminate the CNN report perhaps even more aggressively than Team Cruz. Rubio persisted in blaming Cruz for an activity that his own campaign partook in last week in New Hampshire: Obviously weve all seen the reports of the rumors that he spread about Ben Carson."
Heres an excerpt of the CNN TV report:
CNNS DANA BASH: Our Chris Moody is breaking this news that Ben Carson is gonna go back to Florida to his home…regardless of how he does… Hes going to go there for several days. And then afterwards hes not gonna go to New Hampshire. Hes not gonna go to South Carolina hes going to go to Washington D.C… for the National Prayer Breakfast … where he got himself on the political map. …Very unusual!"
CNNS JAKE TAPPER: Plus hes already announced that hes going to be coming out and speaking at 9:15 local 10:15 Eastern no matter whether or not we know the results because he wants to get home…
BASH: Look if you want to be President of the United States you dont go home to Florida. …Thats the end of the story.
CNN didnt do its homework in its haste to break" a story. Instead CNN led viewers to believe that a vote for Carson was a wasted vote. The bigger problem however is Carsons response.
NUMBERS DONT LIE
Given that the CNN story broke minutes before official voting it had little impact. We know this by analyzing the official 2016 Iowa caucus exit numbers. If you click the link and scroll to the section titled When did you finally decide whom to support in todays caucus?" youll find these key facts:
Rubio: If anyone benefited from the last-minute report that Carson was dropping out it was Rubio who leads the top four Republican candidates with the number of voters who decided to vote for him just today."
Cruz: He has the highest number of voters who said they decided a week" or a month" priorto the Iowa caucus to vote for him. So a bulk of Cruz voters came to the caucus knowing that Cruz was their guy. They were uninfluenced by last minute news reports.
Overall: Trump and Cruz have the highest number of voters who said they decided more than a month" before the caucus to vote for their candidates. Rubio was far behind in this regard and Carson has the fewest number of voters in this category.
Translation: if anyone benefited from indecisive last minute voters it was Rubio! Cruz and Trumps voters already had their minds made up.
Cruz personally visited all 99 Iowa counties. His hard work paid off. Cruz has the highest number of voters (36) who answered Yes" to the question: Did anyone personally contact you about coming out today to support your candidate?" Guess who has the fewest? Carson (10).
Cruz braved the snow and humbly appeared before small crowds in quaint rural towns. Carson didnt have a solid ground game. Even on the day of the caucus he was counting down the seconds until he could jet home to sunny Florida.
WILL CARSON PRAY FOR CNN?
Carson said he would pray" for Trump after Trump deliberately questioned his mental stability. But I guess hes not praying for CNN or Cruz after this mistake.
I dont want a person thats got pathological disease" Trump said about Carson. If youre pathologicaltheres no cure for that folks. Theres no cure for that." Trump said that on purpose. Trump also intentionally stood before a huge crowd of Iowa voters and moved his belt buckle around while mocking and discrediting Carsons childhood story of failing to stab a friend because of the friends belt buckle. Oddly Carson never blamed his downward spiral from first place in Iowamonths agoto fourth today on Trumps purposeful slander.
Which is worse a mistake or intentional slander? Carson acts like the mistake is worse.
Instead of praying for CNN Carson urged the media to crucify Cruz. He demanded an apology from Cruz and told him to fire his staffers. Cruz out of total graciousness made the mistake of apologizing to Carson. Carson responded like a petulant child and continued to tweet all last week about dirty tricks."
But Cruz wouldnt let an ABC reporter bully him with the dirty tricks line: Is it a dirty trick to pass on your news stories? Youre in the business. Would you think it was if I forwarding an ABC story or just a dirty trick to pass on CNN stories?"Boom.
THE MOST DECENT MAN"
Ben Carson has a reputation for being honorable. I personally have admired him for years using my columns to lavish praise upon his work as a surgeon and politician. I even dedicated a portion of my book to laud his healthcare reform plan. So Im heartbroken and disappointed by his recent behavior.
The stakes are too high to let Carsons claim of being cheated in Iowa go unchecked. We will lose the White House in 2016 to a socialist (Bernie) or a woman who treats confidential emails like cotton candy (Hillary) if we run a weak candidate. Last week Carson fired over 50 of his staffers. His campaign had no traction going into Iowa. So why is he selfishly spreading rumors about the strongest Republicancandidate? Attention? Book sales? A TV gig? Who knows.
WORDS CAN NEVER HURT ME
Donald Trump immediately took advantage of Carsons claims and demanded a new election." His sidekick Sarah Palin piped up on Facebook about dirty tricks." Cruz pushed back saying: It seems his reaction to everything is to throw a fit and I understand that Donald finds it very hard to lose. But at the end of the day the people of Iowa spoke."
Trump curled up with his proverbial security blanket and quickly changed his tune from mean to docile. (Its dangerous to bully a strong man. Youre liable to get hurt.) Within hours Trump was telling talk radio host Hugh Hewitt that he has always liked" Cruz and would consider Cruz for his VP. What a pivot!
A doctor. A businessman/reality-television star. Carson and Trump revel in their outsider" status. Trump insists that he is pure as snowincapable of being influenced by lobbiesbecause he self-finances." Carson reminds us that he is not a politician"even as he runs for president.
The presidential race is the Super Bowl of politics. Just as it would be unsportsmanlike for the losing football team to falsely accuse the winner of cheating to hide its own lack of preparation it is very unsportsmanlike for Carson Trump and Rubio to call Cruz a cheat to mask their own weak ground games in Iowa.
Now you know the rest of the story. Ben Carson is now a politician. Share the truth. The stakes are high.
Katie Kieffer is the author of a new book published by Random House LET ME BE CLEAR: Barack Obamas War on Millennials and One Womans Case for Hope." She writes a weekly column for Townhall.com. She also runs KatieKieffer.com.
