Welcome to today's edition of the Rush 24-7 podcast.
Hey, folks, how are you?
Greetings.
Great to have you here, Rush Limbaugh.
Already the middle of the week.
You know, honestly, when I finished the program yesterday, I thought today was going to be Friday.
That's how intense just the first two days of the week has been, but here we are in Wednesday, hump day, middle of the week.
Great to have you here.
I think, folks, it's safe to say Donald Trump thinks that he got schlonged in Iowa.
800-282-288.
If you want to be on the program, the email address, lrushbo at eibnet.com.
Donald Trump, thinking he was schlonged in Iowa, accuses Ted Cruz of fraud and is calling for a new election from the Politico.
Donald Trump on Wednesday, that's today, ratcheted up his rhetoric after his loss in the Hawkeye cauckey, accusing Ted Cruz of illegally stealing the election in a tweet that he subsequently deleted.
Accusing the Texas senator of fraud, Trump said later that a new election should take place or Cruz's results should be nullified.
Mr. Trump said that Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa.
He illegally stole it.
Now he had to pull that back.
He had to withdraw that tweet and take the word illegally out of it.
There were legal consequences to that, so he pulled it back.
People grabbed screenshots of it, though.
And he retweeted it without the word illegally in it.
So it's Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa.
He stole it.
That's why all the polls were so wrong.
Any wonder why he got more votes and why he got more votes than anticipated?
Very bad.
Trump tweeted Wednesday morning.
The tweet disappeared within minutes of posting, as I say, because of the word illegally in there.
He then retweeted minutes later, correcting a typo, removing the word illegal.
Well, it wasn't a typo.
That would have opened up all kinds of legal, what, libel possibilities?
So that's why it was withdrawn and then retweeted minus the word illegally.
Final tweet was, Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa, he stole it.
That's why all the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated bad.
You know, folks, Trump calling fraud on the Iowa caucuses and saying that it should be done over might be the best proof yet that Trump is not your typical Republican establishment candidate.
No matter what happens, Republican establishment candidates almost never complain when they lose elections.
And I know some people have been thinking that Trump is a wolf in sheep's clothing with all this previous quotes people can produce of him supporting liberal causes and liberal Democrat candidates and so forth.
But I'll tell you, when I see him protesting the results of an election, that to me erases any fear that he might be an establishment guy because let's face it, establishment Republicans never complain about anything anybody does to them.
Man, what a way to kick off the day.
Here's a series of tweets that Trump has produced so far today.
Ted Cruz didn't win Iowa.
He stole it.
That's why all the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated bad.
During prime time of the Iowa caucus, Cruz put out a release that Ben Carson was quitting the race and a caucus for Cruz.
Another tweet, many people voted for Cruz over Carson because it is Cruz fraud.
Also, Cruz sent out a voter violation certificate to thousands of voters.
Another tweet, the voter violation certificate gave poor marks to the unsuspecting voter, grade of F, and told him to clear it up by voting for Cruz.
Fraud.
And finally, last tweet that was sent out, Cruz strongly told thousands of caucus goers that Trump was strongly in favor of Obamacare and choice, a total lie.
And people are wondering, I mean, I'm sure you are too, does anybody pre-read these tweets before they go out?
Is there anybody that Trump runs these by, or is there somebody tweeting them instead of him?
Is somebody doing this that he doesn't know about?
No, that's not possible.
Is he tweeting?
Does he run these by anybody?
I mean, really, to put out a tweet that Cruz didn't win Iowa, he stole it and to demand a new election.
Is there nobody in the Trump universe that looks at it, you know, might not want to send that right now?
But apparently not.
Donald Trump has demanded a new election because of the way Cruz defrauded Ben Carson.
In another tweet, Trump referred to the Cruz campaigns mailer sent out, this voter violation stuff.
And he followed up by writing that Cruz had misled Iowans about Trump's stand on health care, the Affordable Care Act, and all that.
All of this, I mean, it's all over the place.
This is Politico that I'm reading it from.
Let's go to the audio soundbites on this.
And I want to start with something I explained yesterday that I got right.
Trump confirmed it, not by name.
Remember the tweet from yesterday that he was said that he self-funded the campaign and there wasn't any appreciation for it.
They got no credit for it or whatever, but he was going to keep doing it, even though it wasn't worth it.
And everybody said, what does that mean?
What in the world is that?
It's not worth it.
If it's not worth it, why are you going to do it?
And I, your host, endeavored to explain it thus.
It's number nine.
We're starting here at number nine.
I think that his point is all this talk about all the money in politics and there's too much of it and too much lobbyists.
So he goes out and self-funds and nobody says anything about it.
Nobody praises him for setting a new tone, a new direction in politics.
So what he's saying is, essentially, that self-funding his campaign has not gotten the accolades he thought that it would get.
So last night in Milford, New Hampshire at a campaign event, or actually before one, he had a press conference, and during Q ⁇ A, he actually explained it and see if it's pretty close to what I supposed it was.
I'm self-funding, and I must tell you, I don't know that enough people appreciate it.
I'm self-funding anyone, whether they appreciate it or not.
So I won't be influenced by the lobbies and, you know, et cetera, et cetera.
But I don't know that it's appreciated really by the voters.
I'm the only one on both sides that's self-funding.
I'm putting up my own money.
And I don't know that the voters appreciate it.
When they go in to vote, I don't think they say, you know, I'm going to vote for Trump because he's self-funding and he's not going to be influenced by lobbies and special interests, et cetera.
I tell them, and sometimes they like it, but I don't think it's something they vote for, which is a shame because it's actually a very big thing.
Right, it's not worth it.
I'm doing all this self-funding.
It's not worth it, but I'm going to keep doing it, but I'm not getting any credit.
It's exactly what I thought the meaning was of that tweet.
Now, he also, apparently I'm wrong when I posit that it was not the debate, skipping the debate last Thursday in Iowa that caused Trump's problems.
He clearly thinks it is now.
And I'm still, I know it's conventional wisdom to say so.
The glitterati and the intelligentsia all think that Trump not appearing at the debate instead of doing his vets event offended Iowa caucus goers who wanted to see him, wanted to hear him and so forth.
And so they lost some enthusiasm and didn't end up caucusing for Trump.
And I always thought, as I said yesterday, that it was things that took place long before the debate that might have caused some people some problems.
The way he was criticizing Cruz, the things he was saying about Cruz being mean and heartless and letting people die on the street because of health care and so forth.
It sounded like the kind of criticism that Cruz would get from a Bernie Sanders, a socialist type wacko, or Hillary Clinton.
And I said, that's going to cause people to rethink some things here, I thought.
But Trump is saying, no, no, he thinks that it's debate now.
Could have been the debate that made him lose Iowa.
This is again in Milford, New Hampshire last night before a campaign event.
And a reporter said there's polling that shows that people who decided early tended to go with you, but folks that decided later didn't.
Now, what that means is, by the way, the big final poll was that Des Moines Register poll.
It had Trump winning by four.
And it was also the poll that predicted a huge, big turnout.
It didn't specify that, but if you looked at the data, there was no way their results could happen unless there was a big turnout.
And another bit of conventional wisdom, big turnout, record turnout was going to benefit Trump.
Another aspect of the polling and conventional wisdom that was wrong by 180 degrees.
The big turnout benefited Rubio and Cruz.
It did not help Trump.
Now, this business of being a late decider, what that really means is somebody made up their mind after the last poll.
So the Des Moines Register poll takes place.
When did they announce that?
On a Friday?
I forget the day, but there were days after that poll before the caucus.
And so the poll results are announced and published.
But then events continue to happen.
And it's true, according to the polling data, the exit polls and so forth, people that made up their minds late tended to vote for Rubio or Cruz and turned away from Trump.
And we believe this to the extent we believe people are honest in both entrance and exit polls.
So we'll go with it because that's what's being reported.
And it was that little tidbit of information that fed the conventional wisdom that, aha, it's the debate.
Trump skipping the debate and doing his vets event.
That's what caused the problem with late deciding voters.
And here's Trump answering the question.
Polling that shows people who decided early stayed with you, but people that decided later didn't.
I think it could have been the debate.
I think some people were disappointed that I didn't go in the debate.
If I had it to do again, I would have done the exact same thing.
And the reason is, do you know why?
Because I raised $6 million for the vets in one hour.
So if I took a second place instead of a first place and could give the vets $6 million, I'll do that all day long.
Yeah, it probably was the debate, but I'd do it again.
I'd blow off the debate again if the same set of circumstances popped up.
Here's Trump unloading on the dishonest Ted Cruz during the campaign event.
The two previous soundbites are prior to it with the drive-bys.
Here is Trump during the campaign event unloading on Cruz.
Cruz comes out with an ad that I'm in favor of Obamacare.
Can you believe this?
These are dishonest people, these politicians.
These are worse than real estate people in New York.
Then he said, Ben Carson has quit the race the day of the election.
Ben didn't quit the race?
What kind of crap is this?
No, it's honestly, really, really dishonest.
And I think I know why.
You know why?
Because he was born in Canada.
Was.
Happens to be a problem, folks.
You watch.
He gets the nomination.
They're going to sue his ass off.
Whoa, it's still loaded for Bear on the Canada angle.
Still loaded for Bear.
The reason that Cruz participated in a fraud against Dr. Carson is because he's from Canada.
And he knows it's a problem.
He's going to Democrats are going to sue his ass off.
I can say I'm quoting.
So dishonest Ben Carson quit the race.
Hey, look, I found what, for to me, is an obscure website, something I hadn't seen before, but there is apparently some evidence out there that the actual culprit here is the Carson campaign itself.
The Carson campaign mentions that they are leaving and taking some time before New Hampshire and South Carolina and so forth.
But beyond that, I mean, it really did start there, and then CNN got in the game.
But this website says that if you really want to find out who got this whole ball rolling, you've got to go to the Rubio campaign.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, you got to go to the Rubio campaign to find out what really happened.
And Rubio is not from Canada.
He's from Cuba.
USA Today has a, it's either a story or a column.
I'm not sure which.
Anyway, the point is: is it immoral to watch the Super Bowl?
Guy posits we might all want to re-examine the morality of watching the Super Bowl and maybe not watch it because of concussions.
And by watching the Super Bowl and watching the NFL, we are promoting the violence and mayhem resulting in brain dysfunction for most of the people at play.
Kid you not.
Details.
Well, his name is, what's his name here?
Matthew.
No, Dylan Gwynn.
Dylan Gwynn.
Again, I don't know if it's a column or a news story.
It has to be a column.
Anyway, we'll get to that.
I just want to let you know there's, folks, all kinds of stuff percolating out there.
Sarah Palin has weighed in on Facebook on what a lying sneak Ted Cruz is on the way they have sought to defraud the Ben Carson campaign.
It is, it's getting thick out there.
The first poll, what is it?
The first post-Iowa poll in New Hampshire shows Trump plus 24.
Now, I have to again share with you that which I shared yesterday.
Predicted it, it's happening today.
A bunch of conventional wisdom people, establishment media people are writing, and this is their hope.
I mean, it has to be their hope.
They're hoping that Trump finishing second blows all these polls that show him up 24, 25, whatever it is in New Hampshire out of the water.
They hope that finishing second destroys this winner myth.
They're thinking it's going to blow it sky high and that people in support of Trump in New Hampshire are not going to be able to maintain their support because the momentum's been lost.
In furtherance of that, the liberal polling unit out of North Carolina, public policy polling, has teased the results of a poll they're going to release tomorrow.
They haven't released anything but this little tease.
And the tease is that Trump's numbers in their poll in New Hampshire are much different now than they were prior to Trump losing in Iowa.
So a lot of people are glomming onto that.
See, we knew this was going to happen.
But meanwhile, before any of that happens, while all of that remains theory, it's what I told you yesterday is going to happen.
Folks, it's amazing when you know how this stuff works, how you can spot what's phony and ignore it.
Like all the days, all the months leading up to the Iowa caucuses was theory, prediction, some educated guess based on polling data.
But look at how the absolute reality of everything was turned upside down after nothing more than an actual election, providing actual hard votes, which gave us an actual hard result.
It has changed the dynamic, but the cycle begins again because now New Hampshire comes up on Tuesday.
Between now and then, the theorizing, the predicting, the analyzing based on the past, Iowa, has begun.
People are going to tell you what they think is going to happen to New Hampshire because of what happened in Iowa.
They'll produce some polling data to back up whatever their contentions are.
Meanwhile, the campaigns reignite, go on at full speed, and everybody starts trying to tell you what it all means and what it's going to end up meaning and happening next Tuesday when nobody knows.
And next Tuesday, we're going to have another hard dose of reality as we get another result.
And that's going to upend a bunch of and most of what you are going to hear this week.
And the process will continue again until the next election.
And once you're able to spot the fluff, which you should be able to do because you have me guiding you through this intricately woven web of deceit, then it becomes even more interesting and more when you're able to identify the know-nothings masquerading as experts and so forth,
when you're able to identify the people that may really know what they're talking about and are worth paying attention, it becomes even more fun than it already is because what we're dealing with now is voyeurism.
I mean, people that want to see people crash and burn, they're getting their wish.
Others who want to see people triumph and come out of the ashes when it wasn't expected, they're getting their wish.
Rand Paul, by the way, has announced he's out.
He quit today.
I'm going to go back now and focus on his senatorial reelection for Kentucky.
All kinds of pressure now with Rubio, and this, by the way, this is not projection or wild guessery.
Rubio's finish in Iowa has changed the dynamic in terms.
Everybody's going to be loaded up against Rubio this week and in the debate on Saturday.
Everybody.
You have Jeb, you're going to have Christie, you're going to have Kasich, every one of these, in addition to going after Cruzner, but they're now going to add Rubio.
Rubio is going to be the focus of it because Rubio has now won, if you want to express it loosely, Rubio has been named as the establishment enemy candidate that you've got to take out Rubio in order to take out the Republican establishment.
And Rubio is aware of this.
And so it's all, it's fascinating to watch all these pieces come together.
And we're going to have a lot of fun today, by the way, as all of this, if the audio soundbites and some of your calls added into this, make sense of all this, by the end of the program today, you're going to have a pretty good feel for where this is headed the rest of the week.
It's because I assign the host duties because I'm the host.
So there can't be any mistakes.
800-282-2882, if you want to be on the program.
Let's go back.
Audio soundbite number 12.
Keep things in context.
Last night, Milford, New Hampshire, during a campaign event, Donald Trump unloading on Ted Cruz of Canada.
Cruz comes out with an ad that I'm in favor of Obamacare.
Can you believe this?
These are dishonest people, these politicians.
These are worse than real estate people in New York.
Then he said, Ben Carson has quit the race the day of the election.
Ben didn't quit the race.
What kind of crap is this?
No, it's honestly, really, really dishonest.
And I think I know why.
You know why?
Because he was born in Canada.
Was.
Happens to be a problem, folks.
You watch.
He gets the nomination.
They're going to sue his ass off.
It's actually a story from some.
I can't remember what I put in various stacks.
This is my bad here today.
Keep trying to keep things organized.
But it's a story out of Illinois.
Some legal authority, might be the Supreme Court, the election board, somebody in Illinois has proclaimed Cruz entirely legal.
He is a full-fledged American citizen.
The point is that a court in liberal Democrat Illinois, the home of the godfather, Rah Emmanuel, has proclaimed that Ted Cruz is an American and he's legally a citizen and he can run for president and so forth.
So not that there was ever any real doubt about it, but that doesn't mean that the Democrats won't go after Cruz in a lawsuit.
I mean, there are lawsuits on Obama even now, that he was born on Mars.
And this whole thing is just an alien game, you know, Area 51, Roswell, New Mexico, and so forth.
So there's no doubt that Cruz is going to be sued.
It's not going to stop anything.
I mean, Mrs. Clinton may be indicted.
It's not going to stop her.
Crazy Bernie might be committed.
It isn't going to stop him.
But now we continue on with the audio soundbites.
Here is Trump last night, same campaign event in Milford, New Hampshire.
And he's reminding everybody how tough he's going to be on foreign policy here.
If we are attacked, somebody attacks us.
Wouldn't you rather have Trump as president if we're attacked?
Oh, we'll beat the shit out of them.
Anybody attacks us.
We are going to beat the excrement out of them.
Nobody attacks us.
Anybody attacks us, we're going to beat the excrement out of them.
On the Today Show this morning, Matt Wauer said, I have to say, Savannah Guthrie and I were talking.
We had the chance to interview you when you were in Iowa on Monday.
And we were both a little surprised at how understated and subdued you sounded on the air that morning.
By the way, I've heard that Trump was sick, had a bad, bad cold even the weekend leading in.
Now, this is not, it's not sourced from Trump's people, by the way.
I don't talk to Trump's people.
I don't remember where I saw it, but a couple different places.
He had a bad cold, a cough, and he was another reason why he might not have been all over the place over the week.
In any way, Matt Wauer is talking about, well, you were so humble in your speech after the caucus on Monday night.
Did members of your team give you a hint at what might be coming and so forth?
Did you know in advance?
No, I'm just trying to be a little bit more understated and statesmanlike.
Some people like that, some people don't, actually.
No, I don't think so.
Not at all.
I mean, I think, you know, when it comes to Iowa, I was not supposed to even go there.
A lot of people thought that I wouldn't do well in Iowa.
And I made a decision to go because I know some of the people and they're great people.
And I came in second, you know, which is a good finish.
I mean, you have 11 people, and you started off with 17, and I came in second.
Right.
So it's a more statesmanlike and more subdued posture that Trump is attempting to assume here.
Trying to be a little bit more understated and statesmanlike.
That's from the Today Show.
This morning, Ted Cruz has apologized for spreading the rumor that Ben Carson's dropping.
I actually apologize to Dr. Carson.
Ted Cruz apologized for his campaign statements made on the day of the Iowa caucus, implying that Carson was dropping out of the race.
Last night when our political team saw the CNN post saying Dr. Carson was not carrying on to New Hampshire in South Carolina, our campaign updated the grassroots leaders just as we would with any breaking news story.
It's fair game.
What the team should have done is send around the follow-up statement from the Carson campaign clarifying that he was indeed staying in the race when that came out.
That was a mistake from our end, and for that, I apologize to Dr. Carson.
This is an even more direct apology to what I reported to you yesterday.
But it doesn't look like it's enough to satisfy Dr. Carson.
During an appearance on the Fox Biden's Network's After the Bell, Dr. Carson responded to Cruz's apology.
He said, as Christians, of course, we accept people's apologies.
We also have to ask ourselves, is this acceptable to us, the American people?
Or should there be some accountability, Cruz added.
There should be some consequences for things.
You don't just say, oh, okay, sorry, okay, let's move on.
The damage was done to me.
It wasn't done to them.
So, I don't know what's he saying, that Cruz ought to fire some people.
Dr. Carson wants headstrow.
I guess my idea didn't get any traction.
Cruz should offer Dr. Carson a couple delegates.
I'm shocked.
I'm really, I'm shocked.
I thought that would have been a great, great compromise here.
I mean, whoever does that before?
I mean, just give a couple delegates.
Sorry, Dr. Carson.
Of course, I can see the problem if you offer a couple delegates and Dr. Carson.
No, I want all five.
You know, then you've got a negotiation.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I understand that.
But look at the magnanimity of offering a couple of delegates as a peace offering.
I mean, it's not like offering $24 to Manhattan, but nevertheless, it's a deal.
And, well, I know.
I said, why it probably isn't going to happen.
He's going to need those delegates toward the end.
You never know.
And then there's this from Breitbart.
Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson alleged there is a culture within Cruz's campaign that led some of his supporters to falsely claim that Carson had dropped out during the Iowa caucus on Tuesday's O'Reilly factor.
By the way, I was mentioned on the O'Reilly factor last night too, and we have that coming up.
Well, they, you know, we had a caller yesterday.
There's a lot of callers here calling about Fox News lately, one yesterday, and I explained to them, like, the cars are not conservative anymore.
They're not conservative.
Like, I remember him.
Used to be able to tell him all they do, all they do is just criticize conservatives.
And I thought to explain that, why that happens.
And the O'Reilly factor aired that, and, of course, promptly disagreed and brought in guests who disagreed and then unknowingly made my point.
So we will share that with you as the program unfolds.
But Carson was on the O'Reilly factor, said he'd talked to Cruz.
He says that he didn't know anything about what the campaign did, meaning that's what Cruz told Carson.
And Carson says, I have to accept at his word that he didn't know because he said if he'd known, he would have not agreed to do such a thing, meaning tweet out that Carson was leaving the campaign.
Now, Carson later said a culture exists within the Cruz campaign that would allow people to take advantage of a situation like this in a very dishonest way.
He says, this is the kind of stuff we see with the Obama administration, the IRS scandal, no responsibility.
Well, let's see what, in fact, the Cruz campaign will do about those people who inappropriately disseminated this information knowing that the caucus was not over.
Here comes Sarah Palin, endorser of Donald Trump on Facebook.
Dirty politics.
Witnessing firsthand, it's always heartbreaking.
Never surprising.
She writes, thank heavens Donald Trump opened so many eyes to the lies, corruption, and total lack of accountability that come so naturally to the permanent political class.
And Senator Ted Cruz was spot on when he once noted that millions of Americans are asking for accountability and truth, which is why it's so curious, Sarah Palin writes, and why it saddens us.
This lack of accountability with the lies of Cruz's own campaign.
Cruz's campaign chairman, U.S. Representative Steve King, is lying, and good for Ben Carson for calling this out.
King, who's previously asked for and received my endorsement, says Palin, time and resources to support his own election, says Palin, is still lying about my altruistic support for Mr. Trump, and he's refused to provide any evidence to the contrary.
And this U.S. Congressman actually lied to his own constituents on behalf of Cruz regarding a good man, Dr. Carson.
He told voters that Carson was dropping out of the presidential race immediately before the Iowa caucus, causing a relative uproar inside the process.
So the word would spread and he could rack up more votes for his candidates.
Cruz, that's a dirty trick.
Dr. Carson deserved better.
The voters deserve better.
Where's the accountability for these political actions?
Very sad.
Typical Washington tactics.
This is why the status quo has got to go.
That's Sarah Palin chiming in, dumping on Cruz and Steve King and the campaign for the dire mistreatment of Dr. Carson.
And over here, uh-oh, was Marco Rubio guilty in the Ben Carson dropout rumor?
I'll tell you what this says after this.
Just got an email here during the break.
Dear Rush, I'm missing something here.
In this outrage, I'm missing something in this outrage directed at Cruz.
Trump, Palin, Carson all sound whiny to me.
What in the world do they think they're doing?
What business are they in here?
Folks, maybe that describes some of you.
The aspect of this.
What it means, Cruz is the frontrunner.
And this is apparently the only way they can go after this.
I guess they don't think they can go after him on issues.
I guess they don't see any other way to go.
You know, they're going to go after the frontrunner.
I mean, it's part, it's the name of the game here.
Now, it does matter, I think, what you go after the frontrunner on.
You do run the risk of sounding, I don't know, whiny.
I don't know what it is, but you've got to realize what business you're in here.
But if there were a way to solidly attack Cruz on issues or substance, I think they would do that too.
And so far, it's just about whatever his campaign did with Dr. Carson.
Now, ran across a website today, first time.
It's named Polistic, P-O-L-I-T-I-S-T-I-C-K.
And the writer here is Jennifer Burke.
The headline, uh-oh, was Marco Rubio guilty in the Ben Carson dropout rumor.
It begins this way.
Senator Cruz has been the subject of brutal attacks all day by the Carson campaign.
Prior to the beginning of the Iowa caucus, CNN reporter Chris Moody tweeted that Dr. Carson was leaving the campaign trail to return to Florida for some RR.
He then said that Carson would be in Washington for the national prayer breakfast, the event that put him on the map back in 2013.
The Cruz campaign is accused of intentionally using dirty tricks against Carson during the Iowa caucus.
Dr. Carson finished the night, just over 9% of the vote.
Cruz won it with 27.6%.
Carson accuses Cruz of intentionally trying to undermine his campaign due to the actions of a grassroots leader involved with his campaign.
But the one thing not being mentioned is the CNN report, which stemmed from an unclear statement sent out by the Carson campaign.
This woman, Jennifer Burke, is actually saying, you know, if you want to get to the bottom of this, what started it all?
The Cruz camp didn't start it.
There was a tweet out there.
And her area of focus is the Carson campaign, backed up by CNN.
Here's the Chris Moody tweet.
This is exactly what CNN tweeted out at 5.43 p.m. on February 1st.
This is before the caucus even started.
Chris Moody, CNN, tweets, Carson won't go to New Hampshire or South Carolina, but instead will head home to Florida for some R. He'll be in D.C. Thursday for the national prayer breakfast.
The doctor's campaign later clarified that Dr. Carson was not dropping out of the race, but merely returning to Florida to get a change of clothes.
Dana Perino of Fox News said earlier on Tuesday, such a decision by presidential candidate at this state of the game is unheard of.
Still, Cruz handled the accusation with the class issuing an apology.
That entire apology is being framed as an admission of wrongdoing by Cruz himself.
But what has not been said much throughout the day is that Florida Senator Marco Rubio's campaign worked actively to spread the message that Carson was leaving the race.
These actions were reported by Twitter, on Twitter, by Conrad Close, who, according to his Twitter profile, is the managing editor of Outset magazine.
Another interesting little tidbit about Conrad Close that he shouts from the rooftops with his Twitter profile is that he is Team Rubio with the statement below his picture, I'm voting for Marco Rubio.
His tweet at 6.29 p.m. on February 1st, before the caucus had begun, Rubio campaign pushing the narrative hard that Carson is dropping out, obviously looking to pick up votes for Carson.
That's a tweet from a guy named Conrad Close, who identifies a young guy.
He identifies himself as a Rubio supporter and is the managing editor of something called Outset Magazine.
Conservative journalist and communications guy fighting to make a difference for God and country is how he describes himself in his Twitter profile.
Managing editor Outset occasionally tries to save the world, lives in Georgia.
And he tweeted out at 6.29, 6.30, Rubio campaign pushing the narrative hard that Carson is dropping out, obviously looking to pick up votes from Carson.
And that's gone.
They pulled that down, but their screenshot was grabbed of it in time.
And there's more.
the plot thickens here ladies but it's still politics it's not romper room but that's you know we live in a country where many millennials think it is romper room folks that That's a problem with our education system and another story.
We'll be back.
No, no, no.
I get it.
I mean, Cruz wins Iowa by stressing his ethics and his honesty and religion.