CNN’s Jake Tapper shot down a conspiracy theory Tuesday alleging that Sen. Ted Cruz’s, R-Texas, father was involved somehow in the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and stated in no uncertain terms that the whole story is pure garbage.
“Every time you think [the 2016 GOP primary] cannot get any more ludicrous, it does,” the anchor said. “I cannot believe I need to say the following, but here goes: There is no corroborated evidence that Ted Cruz’s father ever met Lee Harvey Oswald or any other presidential assassin.”
Tapper’s comments came hours after billionaire businessman Donald Trump claimed during an interview on “Fox and Friends” that Cruz’s father, Rafael, was photographed with Kennedy assassin Lee Harvey Oswald just moments before Oswald’s own assassination.
The National Enquirer, a supermarket tabloid that is owned and operated by a personal friend of Trump, most recently circulated the supposed photograph of Cruz and Oswald in a report titled “Ted Cruz Father Linked to JFK Assassination.”
“His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald’s being — you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous,” Trump said in a phone interview Tuesday. “What is this, right prior to his being shot, and nobody even brings it up. They don’t even talk about that. That was reported, and nobody talks about it.”
“I mean, what was he doing? What was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death, before the shooting?” the casino tycoon added. “It’s horrible.”
The reason that no one reports it or talks about it, Tapper explained later on CNN, is that there is zero evidence to corroborate the story, adding that the man standing next to Oswald in the photo doesn’t even look like Cruz the elder.
“We, in the media, don’t talk about it because there’s no evidence of it,” Tapper said. “Any suggestion that Cruz’s father played a role in the Kennedy assassination is ridiculous, and, frankly, shameful.”
“Now that’s not an anti-Trump position or a pro-Cruz position. It’s a pro-truth position,” he added.
