Texas Sen. Ted Cruz sought to explain away a supporter’s decision to spread rumors of Marco Rubio’s exit from the 2016 race by blaming the Drudge Report website.
In an interview with Fox News personality Megyn Kelly that aired on Wednesday, Cruz said an email casting doubt on Rubio’s viability came from a volunteer in Hawaii that is not affiliated with his presidential campaign. “Our legal counsel sent them a letter saying take that email down [that] one volunteer sent out. And by the way, they forwarded a CNN story that was the lead story on Drudge is what the volunteer did,” Cruz said. “[We asked] them to take it down anyway, why? Because we knew that other campaigns would seek to try to attack my integrity because a volunteer forwards a story that’s the lead story on Drudge to other voters. And we knew that reporters would do what you’re doing, which is ask, ‘Doesn’t this prove you’re unethical that voters are forwarding links to news stories?'”
Kelly protested that she did not phrase the question in that way, and Cruz was shown replying that he has “no idea” if the news of Rubio’s demise is true or false.”This is the way politics is played. Where if you have a campaign, the Rubio campaign, they don’t want to focus on the issues, they want to talk about Donald’s hands,” Cruz continued. “How about focusing on how we solve the problems in this country?”
Cruz campaigned in Florida on Wednesday and picked up the endorsement of Carly Fiorina, a former GOP presidential candidate. The senator likely hopes his endorsements and recent victories will help put as much pressure on Rubio as possible before his home state of Florida holds its primary on Tuesday.
