Ted Cruz said Wednesday that CNN’s reporting on the night of the Iowa caucuses about Republican rival Ben Carson’s campaign was accurate.
“CNN got it correct. Miracles happen. But that is part of the democratic process to let Iowa caucusers know, here is the news that is breaking. And it is relevant,” Cruz told a man who asked what happened on Monday evening.
CNN reported Monday night that Carson would go home to Florida following the Iowa caucuses instead of flying directly to the early voting states New Hampshire and South Carolina. The network added that he planned to stay in the race.
Some Cruz allies shared that news widely on the night of the caucuses, including to Carson supporters, but did not include the part about Carson remaining in the race.
That has irked Carson and his team, who has said the decision by the Cruz team to share only part of the CNN report was a dirty political maneuver. Donald Trump has also latched onto it as a reason to invalidate Cruz’s victory over him in Iowa.
“The allegations of somehow fraud — the last I checked, passing on news stories about breaking news that is true and accurate is, and should, be part of the democratic process. And all of the rest of it is just silly noise,” Cruz said Wednesday.
Cruz apologized to Carson on Tuesday, in a statement that mischaracterized CNN’s reporting.
“Last night when our political team saw the CNN post saying that Dr. Carson was not carrying on to New Hampshire and South Carolina, our campaign updated grassroots leaders just as we would with any breaking news story,” Cruz said in the statement. “That’s fair game. What the team then should have done was send around the follow-up statement from the Carson campaign clarifying that he was indeed staying in the race when that came out.”