“Ted Cruz is a liar”: Marco Rubio becomes Cruz’s latest target in South Carolina
The Rubio campaign is now slamming Cruz for “dishonest push-polls” and dirty Facebook tricks in lead up to Saturday
Topics: 2016 GOP primary, 2016 South Carolina primary, Facebook, GOP, GOP Civil War, Marco Rubio, Rep. Trey Gowdy, Ted Cruz, Elections News, News, Politics News
Typically, at this point in a presidential primary cycle, the negative campaigning kicks into high gear as candidates head into the notoriously dirty “First in the South” primary state of South Carolina. However, Donald Trump has been yelling about rapists and calling his rivals idiots for months now, so the campaigns’ turn to the Palmetto state merely continues the long tradition of mudslinging that has marked the GOP Civil War of 2016.
“Ted Cruz is a liar,” opened an email to supporters blasted out by Marco Rubio’s campaign Tuesday night. “First it was lying about Marco on fundamental issues like life and marriage; now Cruz and his supporters’ attempts to slander and distort Marco’s record have reached a new low,” Rubio campaign spokesman Alex Conant wrote. One ad by a pro-Cruz Super Pac was already pulled down this week after a legal review found it misleading in its claim that Rubio supported so-called “sanctuary cities.”
The Rubio campaign is now accusing Cruz’s campaign of using “dishonest push-polls” to attack their candidate. According to the Washington Post, some South Carolina Republicans have received phone calls that ask, “Did you know that Marco Rubio and the Gang of Eight are for amnesty” and for allowing Syrian refugees to freely enter the U.S.? The Cruz campaign denies any involvement with robo-calls, but Rubio’s camp is still fighting back, releasing a robo-call of their own to “alert” voters in South Carolina.
“These tactics are becoming all too common in this race and indicative of our opponents’ campaigns that are willing to say or do anything to win an election,” Rich Beeson, Rubio’s deputy campaign manager, told the Post. “This is nothing more than a deliberate effort to peddle false information in the hopes of deceiving voters.”
Rubio’s reactionary robo-call features top South Carolina surrogate Trey Gowdy, who himself was the center of another campaign tactic the Rubio campaign complains originates from the Cruz campaign.
