Why Did a Ted Cruz Super PAC Gave $500,000 to Carly Fiorina?

It gave half a million dollars to former tech executive Carly Fiorina's super PAC, Carly for America. The Washington Post first broke the story back in late July.

Super PACs that explicitly support a candidate almost never give in support of other rival candidates. On top of that, at the time, Fiorina was one of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz's main Republican opponents in the 2016 presidential race.

That's why the donation was such a mystery — even The Washington Post piece didn't offer an explanation. It was so uncanny that the Federal Election Commission flagged the activity.

But recent events have sparked conspiracy theories that connect the dots between Cruz, Fiorina, and the $500,000 gift…

One theory is that the donation may have been hush money — part of a cover up for Cruz's alleged sex scandal.

You see, the controversy behind the donation resurfaced after Cruz's recent affair allegations by the National Enquirer. Fiorina's deputy campaign manager Sarah Isgur Flores is one of the alleged mistresses in the supposed sex scandal.

Some suspect the donation was "hush money" to keep Fiorina quiet about the alleged affair.

The plot gets even dicier since Fiorina endorsed Cruz after suspending her campaign back in February. Watch the video below to see Fiorina and Cruz responding to Cruz's affair allegations on March 23. Notice how neither Cruz nor Fiorina explicitly deny the allegations of adultery, with Cruz instead calling the National Enquirer story "garbage."

Another theory suggests Fiorina's suspended campaign is illegally coordinating with another anti-Trump super PAC, Make America Awesome. Under FEC guidelines, it's illegal for campaigns to coordinate with super PACs in any way. After Fiorina suspended her campaign, Liz Mayer, a former Fiorina campaign employee, set up "Make America Awesome," which uses the address: PO Box 26141, Alexandria, VA, 22313 – the same address as Fiorina's campaign headquarters. Make America Awesome is the super PAC that spread the promiscuous photo of Melania Trump in GQ Magazine last week. The theory posits that the Fiorina and Cruz camps are collaborating with Make America Awesome to attack Trump…

In an email to CBS in October 2015, Keep the Promise President Kellyanne Conway responded about the donation:

Keep the Promise I made the donation in June to Ms. Fiorina at that time because we thought she had important things to say that weren't being heard, including her poignant and effective criticism of Mrs. Clinton, at the time, the likely Democratic nominee. However, we are all in for Ted Cruz for President, as our current activities demonstrate, and will continue to support him and his message all the way to the White House."

What do you think about the strange donation a Ted Cruz super PAC made to his former rival? Leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

Campaign finance reports out this month show the elder Mercer playing the field. He gave $250,000 to Believe Again PAC, a super-PAC supporting another Republican presidential contender, Bobby Jindal. He also donated to Fiorina’s presidential campaign committee, which can accept much less money ($5,400 per individual per election cycle) than super-PACs.

Cruz is not the first presidential candidate to experience the fickleness of super-PACs. During the last presidential campaign, a super-PAC that was widely reported to be set to back then-Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann’s quest for the Republican presidential nomination ended up supporting Mitt Romney instead.

Super-PAC Tagged for Ted Cruz Flirts With Carly Fiorina http://bloom.bg/1IuJY3O

Why did someone post another thread about a “scandal” that isn’t taking off?

Wishful thinking. This whole story (mistresses + potential hush money) has just begun. It's nowhere near fully investigated.

Are you really that naive? These things have a life cycle. The life cycle of this Cruz story will likely continue until such time as Ted Cruz comes clean with whatever is going on.

If there's nothing whatsoever going on, that remains to be seen. But if that turns out to be the case, then, one day, Ted Cruz will come out and say "I've always been faithful to my wife" and, in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, people will accept that and the story will die.

In fact, if the story really is as simple as "I have never been unfaithful to my wife", then it is Ted Cruz himself who has needlessly prolonged the ordeal by mishandling a question directly put to him a day or so ago, where he submissively hid behind Mama Carly's skirt as she "took charge" of the situation.

And when I say "took charge", I of course mean that she deflecTED onto the catch-all boogeyman Donald Trump, just as Ted Cruz did with the totally lawyer-esque statement he initially made (at a moment that called for exactly the opposite).

Such behavior (deflection), in and of itself, is a classical sign that deception is likely occurring. Most experts non-controversially agree on this, even though it is only circumstantial information.

Now, if there is something going on, then there will be the elaborate mea culpa speech, instead of the short sentence noted above.

But a story such as this typically will neither die nor "take off" in less than a week's time.

I haven't as yet heard any explanation whatsoever for this $500,000 transfer between the Cruz and Fiorina camps. Neither a good or a bad explanation has been given, from what I'm aware.

And, again if I'm not mistaken, I believe the FEC may have actually asked for an explanation.

It's a fact that such a transfer happened.

It's also a fact that such a transfer is unusual, to say the least.

It's additionally a fact that one of Cruz's supposed mistresses, (Sarah Isgur Flores, I believe) either joined or already worked in the Fiorina campaign at the time.

And apparently Ms. Flores got at least one lump sum payment in the $150K range, as well as drawing a weekly salary in the 5-figure range.

(Note to self: try to get some employment in a high-end political campaign soon.)

So, on the surface, it's a least plausible that there could be something fishy happening there. To gasp in righteous indignation is disingenuous, if not laughable.

My point, however, is that just this one little facet of the bigger story will logically and reasonably entail some investigative journalism, as will various other aspects of the story, in a likelihood.

Thus, it's rather comical to characterize this story, or any part of it, as "not taking off" at this juncture.

So pardon me if I'm not overwhelmed by your desire to dismiss such sleuthing and just MoveOn.

The media will MoveOn from this story when both the fact-finding and the sensationalism have been exhausted. I don't think we've quite reached that point yet, to say the least...

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