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.
Poor Teddy Bares. Teddy is a smarmy lying lawyer.
Speculation.
However we know trump is a liar and a cheater.
The truth will come out. Then we’ll see.
If his wife can’t trust him, the Nation surely can’t either.
Cruz uses a vocabulary higher then the 4th grade Trump uses.
It makes Cruz a little harder to understand for the slower and less well educated voters.
The NSA knows the truth about TRUMP
Bamp.
Its coming. There is MONEY involved. Do you know how many issues of the National Enquirer has been sold already? Millions!
This will be a multi issue story.
Remember the reason other papers do not like the National Enquirer? N.E. often pays for photos, videos and authentic stories where other media outlets does not. That is another reason they crack some stories where traditional media does not.
Some folks criticize paying for information but before you knock it, remember Crime Stoppers pays for legitimate information as well.
Point is the information will be doled out for maximum magazine sales, since they are often PAYING for the info, even though some of us would like to get the story over with!
“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.”
That’s one of the worst affronts to logic I’ve ever seen (in other words, stupidity). The point is in itself garbage, and propaganda worthy of Hitler or Stalin.
I think we need a 100 year moratorium on individuals coming out of Texas who want to be president. 2 Bush’s and 1 LBJ have been quite enough. America can’t take anymore of that BS.
It seems NE was right twice out of thousands of times. The article was worded “supposedly”- not even a direct (false) accusation.
No. We know that Cruz and Romney are involved in
bribery payoffs through a PAC to Fiorina to hush
up Cruz’s liason. ONe of many. One of many payoffs.
Cruz and Romney belong in jail for bribery
and attempting to steal an election.
Back in ‘97 & ‘98 and ‘99 is was ALL MONICA, THE STAINED BLUE DRESS, JOKES ABOUT CLINTON’S BENT MEMBER, CARTOONS all the time! This IS what FR was founded on!
______________________
Those were the days!
Remember the “Count the White House Silverware Free Republic Ball”!
It’s the Free Republic Enquirer. We don’t deal in fact anymore, just rumors.
A good lawyer would have said no more than 15-20 words on the topic. “I don’t give legitimacy to tabloid articles and I demand they retract and apologize. Period. No questions.”
Ted’s constant whining and blaming has given this thing more shelf life that it otherwise would have had.
Even JR and the mods kept the NE articles off of FR until Ted had to go run his big mouth blaming everyone but the tabloid.
That made it national news instead of just another sensationalist headline in the supermarket checkout.
Yes, back when facts in evidence were required.
See #77.
We’re on the same wavelength
Cute puppies. As they all are.
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