CNN’s Jake Tapper defended Ted Cruz this week from Donald Trump’s claim that the Texas senator’s campaign purchased the rights to a picture of the billionaire businessman’s third wife, Melania, which allowed it to be used in a recent attack ad.
The photographer behind the nude GQ photo shoot told reporters that no one has contacted him about purchasing the rights to the picture of Melania.
In short, according to Tapper, there is nothing to back Trump’s claim that the Cruz campaign was personally and financially involved in the production of the Melania-themed Facebook ad.
“No. No. It’s not true,” the CNN anchor said in reference to Trump’s accusations.
The Melania ad was produced by a political action committee called Make America Awesome, which is in no way affiliated with the Cruz campaign.
“[T]he Cruz campaign had nothing to do with this ad whatsoever. We didn’t get the image or the idea for the ad from them,” the PAC’s founder, GOP strategist Liz Mair, told the Washington Examiner‘s media desk this week.
Make America Awesome targeted female voters in Utah this month with a Facebook ad featuring a nude picture of Melania. Text superimposed over the image read, “Meet Melania Trump. Your next first lady. Or you could support Cruz on Tuesday.”
The ad included a disclaimer at the bottom that said, “Not authorized by any candidate or candidate committee.”
After Trump went on to lose the Utah Republican primary to Cruz, he accused the senator of being responsible for the Melania ad. But according to Make America Awesome, the Cruz campaign, CNN, factcheck.org and the photographer himself, Antoine Verglas, there is no truth to this claim.
“There is no evidence that the Trump campaign has provided to back up his accusation,” Tapper reiterated.
Factcheck.org contacted Verglas and asked him if a super PAC or anyone in the Cruz campaign had contacted him to purchase the rights to his handiwork.
The photographer responded, “No. Not anyone.”
Tapper added his final thoughts Friday.
“A reminder to all the politicians out there: You are perfectly entitled to your own opinions. You are not, I repeat not, entitled to your own facts,” he said.
“Donald Trump is in full-grade meltdown mode about this ad, which, when combined with his insane attacks on Heidi Cruz, has caused his supporters to sour on him, big time,” Mair told the Examiner.
“So it’s no surprise he’s trying to change the story by trying to get political reporters to write treatises about intellectual property law, not exactly hot clickbait like stories about the ad itself, and making absurd allegations about the Cruz campaign somehow being involved in our acquisition of the image, production of the ad, etc., etc.,” she added.
