Someone has been conducting some shady push polls in South Carolina aimed at Marco Rubio and Donald Trump, but Ted Cruz was quick to deny Thursday that he had any knowledge of the smear tactics, reports Politico.
"I have no idea. We had nothing to do with them. I don't know what they were. We had nothing to do with them. So I had read reports of what is being said but somebody else is doing them, not us," Cruz told reporters before a rally with Glenn Beck in Fort Mill.
The Washington Post first uncovered the scheme after talking to 53-year-old South Carolina resident Natalie Barrett, who said she received an automated call inquiring about her age, gender, and candidate preferences.
When she selected Sen. Marco Rubio as one of her choices, she said, things got nasty.
“That’s when he said, ‘Did you know that Marco Rubio and the Gang of Eight are for amnesty?’” she recalled in a phone interview. “And then the gentleman said he’s for letting 11 million illegal immigrants stay in the U.S. and that he was for letting Syrians cross the borders freely.”
Barrett said [...] she couldn’t figure out right away who it was from. The voice said the poll was conducted by some place called Remington Research.
Remington Research is a consulting firm founded by Cruz's campaign manager, Jeff Roe. Hmm. Cruz's campaign offered that "anyone can make those calls as Remington Research."
Fair point. So if not Cruz, then who? Kasich? Doubtful. Jeb? He hasn't shown much appetite for playing dirty, but his brother did sack John McCain in 2000 with one of the most infamous push polls in modern political history. Rubio or Trump? Again, doubtful that they would sacrifice themselves on the way to framing Cruz. Carson?
Wait, that reminds me … which campaign has already trafficked in lies? Oh right, Ted Cruz with that whole Ben Carson’s quitting to do his laundry snafu. CNN might wanna prep for being tagged with those mysterious push polls in the next GOP debate.