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.
It is a fair argument that we should go back to only tax-paying property-owning males over the age of 21 being allowed to vote...but good luck getting any traction on that, let aloneness getting the entire GOP hammered for generations.
Adlai Stevenson should have put paid to the notion that appealing to the anointed is enough to secure election.
Politics is downstream of culture, and the GOP and the Christians have long vacated the square of ideas, to the point that Christianity is now being ruled illegal at the fringes, see also being forced to bake wedding cakes for homosexual marriages in direct contravention to the dictates of one's own conscience, and Little Sisters of the Poor possibly being forced to pay for contraception and abortifacent coverage for its members.
How many Nuns actually get knocked up, Halloween costumes aside?
Jan.: “I did not have sexual relations ... with that women ... Ms. Lewinsky”
Aug.: “”Indeed, I did have a relationship with Ms. Lewinsky that was not appropriate. In fact, it was wrong,” Clinton said.
As long as someone is paying us we'll keep speculating.
But can't find anything on Hillary!
Remember the chant that followed the Clintons?
Bill Clinton!
We have you surrounded!
Put down the cigar!
Back away from the intern!
And come out with your pants, UP!
Who cares...
You do. You read the thread and commented to my post.
Sadly, even some supposed old times ( sleeper nics ? ) claim that FR is now a "disaster" and rude or worse.
He’s right. Cruz was strong on the attack to deflect but weak on the defense.
Yes, Ted Cruz IS “trash” and worse.
That’s true.
I care about Cruz’ marital fidelity, given his portraying himself as devoutly Christian. I also care about the Cruz’ charitable giving being only 1% in the years before he ran for TX guv, despite their combined family income being comparatively high.
Cruz doesn't have a good vocabulary at all; he's no Bill Buckley. Hell, he isn't even a Gore Vidal! The script for the play and movie "THE WOMEN", has better vocabulary than Ted had.
If people are confused by Tedspeak, it's because he's a slimy lawyer and uses WEASEL WORDS !
You having problems understand the not at all obtuse Cruz speech; pet? *snicker*
I’m a Ted guy who will vote for trump if that’s the way the wind blows.
But to try to destroy the guy in one’s party, to wind up giving fodder for the winner in the enemy party is not only self destructive, it’s idiotic.
AMEN !
I was part of the group who researched all of the "gifts" that Hillary demanded her "friends" give her, when they left the White House. And I was also part of the group who dug out the FACTS on other Clinton scandals as well. Those were the days and this place was rolicking back then; not "prisssy" nor even "civil".
FR has ALWAYS had posted NE articles on it.
NE articles were posted a LOT, back when FR was a new site.
Are you surprised that they have picked A and have absolutely no respect for B or any of the reasons people may have picked B and visa versa.
Yeah it's weird isn't it. You have a certain expectation from people who are "conservative", but that's out the window.
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