Posted on 03/27/2016 1:51:48 PM PDT by drewh
Phil Houston is CEO of QVerity, a training and consulting company specializing in detecting deception by employing a model he developed while at the Central Intelligence Agency. He has conducted thousands of interviews and interrogations for the CIA and other federal agencies. His colleague Don Tennant contributed to this report.
The eyebrow-raising story that appeared earlier this week in the National Enquirer, citing claims that Sen. Ted Cruz had engaged in five extramarital affairs, drew a sharp response from the Republican presidential contender. Sharp as it was, however, it was strikingly weak in terms of denial, and strong in terms of attack. And that combination is a telltale sign of deception that leads us to conclude that this is a matter that warrants further investigation.
The statement that Cruz released on his Facebook page on Friday immediately drew our attention:
“I want to be crystal clear: these attacks are garbage. For Donald J. Trump to enlist his friends at the National Enquirer and his political henchmen to do his bidding shows you that there is no low Donald won’t go. These smears are completely false, they’re offensive to Heidi and me, they’re offensive to our daughters, and they’re offensive to everyone Donald continues to personally attack. Donald Trump’s consistently disgraceful behavior is beneath the office we are seeking and we are not going to follow.”
Subsequently speaking about the matter, Cruz echoed that sentiment, with even more intensity (you can watch below). He said:
“The National Enquirer published a story. It is a story that quoted one source on the record: Roger Stone, Donald Trump’s chief political advisor. Let me be clear, this National Enquirer story is garbage. It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear, and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen. It is attacking my family, and what is striking is Donald’s henchman, Roger Stone, had for months been foreshadowing that this attack was coming. It’s not surprising that Donald Trump’s tweet occurs the day before the attack comes out. And I would note that Mr. Stone is a man who has 50 years of dirty tricks behind him. He’s a man for whom a term was coined for copulating with a rodent. Well let me be clear: Donald Trump may be a rat, but I have no desire to copulate with him. And this garbage does not belong in politics. The National Enquirer has endorsed Donald Trump, has said he must be President. And so Donald, when he’s losing, when he’s scared, when Republicans are uniting against him, decides to peddle sleaze and slime. You know, Donald is fond of giving people nicknames. With this pattern, he should not be surprised to see people calling him, ‘Sleazy Donald.’”
We should note that these two statements constitute the only material that we currently have at our disposal to analyze, which is far from ideal. Obviously, the more material available for analysis, the greater our confidence in our findings. With that said, however, we were struck by the volume of deceptive behavior that we identified in these statements.
Behaviorally, when the facts are the ally of an individual, he or she almost always tends to focus on the facts of the matter at hand. In this case, if the key fact was that he had not had these affairs, Cruz would almost certainly have been much more strongly focused on the denial. That is, he very likely would have made a point of explicitly stating something along the lines of, “I did not have these affairs.”
Yet at no point in either statement did Cruz say that. He implied it by saying the allegations are false, and that they’re lies, but behaviorally, such statements are not equivalent to saying he never had the affairs. Even if we were to overlook that fact and consider his statements to be a denial, there is an overwhelmingly higher proportion of attack behavior compared to the effort expended at denial. This type of lopsided attack-to-denial ratio is very consistent with what we have historically seen with deceptive people when allegations are levied against them.
Given the lack of additional information upon which to conduct a more comprehensive behavioral analysis, this is nothing more than our initial opinion and assessment, and we will continue to follow this matter very closely. At the same time, we cannot help but conclude at this point that it’s not looking good for Sen. Cruz.
The n00bs think Trump is rough they ain't seen nothing.
Wow,really, high fashion models are “porn stars”?
If Trump wins the nomination he'll have his turn fending off nameless informers and against vague charges, in the press every single day. Heaven knows there's enough material out there already.
I have a feeling the general campaign will be epic.
Tsunami style!
Sometimes parsing words can be a good thing.
You know what, if you want to be Ted Cruz’s judge, jury and executioner be my guest. Trump is an adulterer too. Let’s string them both up and send Hillary a present for her Inauguration.
If Trump is caught cheating on Melanina, I’m done!
“The NSA knows the truth about Cruz”.
The POTUS ultimately has access to all of their info and this is what makes this high tech surveillance so dangerous to democracy. You think Obama did not have something on Chief Justice Roberts? Our country is corrupt.
Trump has been a target of the New York Media since the early eighties. Its easily as bad as the British tabloid media.
Trump may be the most thoroughly vetted Republican candidate we have seen in 100 years.
Every scandal brought forth has already been in the papers. Many stories are are going back 30-35 years ago.
Does not mean the media won’t try.
"I did not have sex with that woman" Bill Clinton
"Let me be clear, this National Enquirer story is garbage. It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear, . . . " Ted Cruz
You be the expert.
If part 2 of this act does not transpire soon . . . then Ted would be most likely telling the truth. However, it no longer matters because he has been found guilty in the court of public opinion. Public opinion matters more than truth.
We shall see.
Incidentally, adultery is not illegal in Texas but it is in New York, where luckily for Mr. Trump the last adultery case was prosecuted in 1944. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn something new.
Still waiting for Heidi to come out with a “Stand by her man” statement, odd that it hasn’t happened yet.
She is campaigning with him, isn’t she?
- - - - - - - - - - -
:)
I don’t know.
I think she was campaigning with him.
Brilliant. The only other analogy would be of a picture of the Cruz supporters going down with the Titanic.
Thanks for the reminder. I couldn't remember exactly which high-brow event the 'Cops Cheer' was used, but that must have been it.
Was it you (sauropod) who used to dress up in a devil costume as "Hillary's brother," or was it someone else?
Hard to believe we've been active on FR for almost 20 years now.
Foam parties and gay pickup parks.
You forget that Cruz started saying a couple of weeks ago that the attacks on him were coming. Proved out that he was aware of the rumors and expected the attacks.
Not one of the major media nor any of the pundits who were appproached by the Rubio camp thought the allegations were provable on the evidence presented and didn’t publish them.
Only the pro=Trump Enquirer, whose CEO, Mr. Pecker, is a big buddy of Trump published the story—and because they didn’t have any proof they repeatedly used highly suspicious ‘deflecting’ words like ‘rumored’, “alledged”, “supposedly”.
If a man says the allegations are completely false, I think it encompasses all points of the allegations.
| Makes you wonder how the Golden Sacks and other donors select their Presidential hopefuls to back. Clearly they try to hedge their bets, not knowing which will be successful. Perhaps they use the following criteria in selecting the perfect candidates to support:
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And, quidam's term for Ken Starr --the turtle.
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