Posted on 03/27/2016 4:32:27 PM PDT by drewh
Did 2016 Republican Presidential contender Ted Cruz pay Carly Fiorina’s campaign to keep her quiet about an affair? It’s unlikely, but Twitter speculation abounds.
Chatter about the “scandal” stems entirely from a National Enquirer story that hit newsstands March 25, alleging Cruz had affairs with five women. The Enquirer ran pixelated headshots of five women that the tabloid claims had affairs with Cruz. One of the headshots appears to be of Carpenter, but there’s no evidence to back up the Enquirer’s report. A Ted Cruz-affiliated Super PAC, Keep the Promise I, donated $500,000 to rival Carly Fiorina’s presidential campaign in July 2015.
The Washington Post noted that the donation was “unusual” at the time, but Twitter and the National Enquirer claim to have a key piece of context: Cruz was having an affair with Fiorina staffer Sarah Isgur Flores.
The Enquirer claims that Cruz cheated on his wife with five different women over the course of his campaign. While the Enquirer pixelated the photos it ran with the story, Twitter sleuths posting at #CruzSexScandal have claimed to unravel a few of the mysteries:
Sarah Isgur Flores, in the center of the supposed de-pixelated photos above, worked for the Fiorina campaign during the 2016 election. As goes the theory, when Fiorina found out about the affair, Cruz silenced her with a half-million-dollar donation.
It bears repeating that no one has proof of anything, and Fiorina has herself endorsed and campaigned with Cruz since ending her campaign. Moreover, a photo from Flores’s Twitter shows Fiorina and the Cruz family being quite friendly:
It’s also important to note that the allegations come on the heels of a heated Twitter spat between Cruz and Donald Trump about the use of each others’ wives on the campaign trail,
No one. That was PAC money.
It's not as though Cruz has friends in the media. If they had real information they would run with it. At this point they do not have real information. There is an avalanche of twitter posts and completely inconsequential manipulations of photos that mean nothing.
My general advice to anyone thinking about running is to assign staff to monitor your whereabouts 24 hours a day, essentially a GoPro surveillance of everywhere you are and everything you say, so you have a verbatim record (subject to certain obvious exceptions.) Compile an accurate record, transcribe your actual statements, and have the ability to immediately refute all the distortions and outright fabrications that emerge. Look at how effective that is for Rush Limbaugh when he steps in it from time to time - he simply refers the irate to his transcripts and the momentary issue goes away.
I think what John Edwards and Bill Clinton prove is that there is a certain disproportionate pull of narcissistic personality types into politics. Folks who think that they are special and that rules do not apply to them. I see none of that in Cruz. If these faint whiffs of scandal were substantiated, it would destroy his campaign. I think that is exactly why folks are trying pretty hard to create the claim. But to date, it's not working. When all you get is this highly derivative stuff ("sources who cannot be named for attribution say that there is a rumor circulating that there may be....") odds are there is no "there" there.
I wonder what inspired them to write that check? Hope it wasn’t Ted.
It’s a fact that Cruz campaign gave Fiorina campaign $500k. It’s like the Pats lending Tom Brady to the Jets - inexplicable.
Campaigns may not communicate with PACs in any way shape or form. It’s the law.
Wow! See how it works? Trump can spend any money he wants - it’s his. We’re talking about campaign money. Jeez. You guys ...
They’d rather think he gave her a half-mil to endorse him. Six months before she left the race!
“Its amazing how many of these Cruz bashing stories dont have any facts. Just guesses, innuendo, and lies.”
Doesn’t matter. Rule #12 of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” states, “* RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
Nowhere does it address sensitivity and respect for the truth.
They’ve learned well.
It is interesting that a hedge fund manager, Robert Mercer, donated $11 million to Keep The Promise I three months before the payment was made to the Fiorina campaign. We know how Donald Trump feels about hedge fund managers. I’m guessing that Ted Cruz would be more amendable to their interests.
No.. it was not the Cruz campaign. It was a PAC transferring money to another PAC.
Facts can be your friend... really.
Facts can be your friend... really.
Ah, yes, facts.
Plausible deniability. Is that really what you're going to hang your hat on?
One simple question about this $500,000 transfer: WHY?
I haven't heard a good explanation yet...
It was a Ted Cruz affiliated Super Pac. Not the Cruz campaign. Very important distinction.
It was not the Cruz campaign. Go back and read. A Ted Cruz affiliated Super Pac. Very different.
It was not the Cruz campaign. Go back and read. A Ted Cruz affiliated Super Pac. Very different.
How would I know why. I’m sure it happens all the time in different deals.
Ohhh! Now it's clear. If you pay hush money out your pocket, it's OK!
Those billionaires have all the breaks.
“Plausible deniability. Is that really what you’re going to hang your hat on?”
No, but evidence and truth are what everyone should be hanging their hat on. No money was not exchanged between the two campaigns, but two PACs, and it happened - and was reported - months ago. If there were illegalities involved, do you really believe Trump wouldn’t have jumped into that like a pig in slop?
This site has had more conspiracy theories flinging around than a convention of 9/11 truthers. Deal with some facts once in a while.
*No money was exchanged..
Nor are there point to point denials.
Which he needs to do to put this trash in the ash can.
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