Trey Gowdy upped his criticism of Sen. Ted Cruz Friday afternoon, calling him out for having an “unusual relationship” with the truth after a string of questionable instances before polls close in South Carolina Saturday night.
Gowdy told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that the Cruz campaign’s recent Photoshop of Rubio shaking hands with President Obama is just the latest in a string of questionable actions by his team, including telling campaign hands that Ben Carson was leaving the race the night of the Iowa caucuses.
“The thing I like about Marco, the reason Tim Scott, Nikki Haley and I are so supportive of him is he really focuses on himself. He does believe in self-defense, so if you attack him, he’s going to defend himself,” Gowdy said. “[Cruz] has an unusual relationship with the truth in the last month or so.”
“I knew [the picture] was Photoshopped immediately,” Gowdy continued. “Marco would never spend that amount of money on a watch. That’s what I told him. ‘As soon as I saw the watch I knew it wasn’t you.'”
The South Carolina congressman added that Cruz’s string of questionable decisions begs the question of what kind of president he would be given his recent history as a candidate.
“What I think Sen. Cruz needs to do is he’s running for the highest office in the land, so people have the right to judge what kind of president you’re going to be based on what kind of candidate you are,” Gowdy said. “If you’re engaged in shenanigans like Photoshopping pictures or fake Facebook postings, or having ads taken down because they can’t pass muster with the FCC, I mean what president are you going to be?”
“In South Carolina we do not mind tough politics. We do not mind it,” Gowdy said. “But it has to be fair and it has to be rooted in the fact, and most of what Sen. Cruz has been accused of lately has been neither.”
Gowdy, who serves as chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, has repeatedly gone after Cruz in recent days as the race tightens. According to the latest RealClearPolitics average, the two senators are separated by a single point, with Cruz leading Rubio 18.1-17.1 percent one day before the Palmetto State takes to the ballot box.
