Sen. Ted Cruz is under fire from Sen. Marco Rubio’s campaign, which accused him and his campaign of employing more “dirty tricks” ahead of the Republican caucuses Tuesday in Hawaii and of spreading false rumors that Rubio was dropping out of the race.
Emails that appeared to have come from the Cruz campaign were sent to his supporters in Hawaii promoting a CNN report saying some of Rubio’s advisers see no path for him to win the Republican presidential nomination, and suggesting that he might leave the race before the March 15 primary in Florida. A spokesman for Rubio said that report was false.
“Senator Cruz is up to his dirty tricks again spreading false rumors and lies,” said Joe Pounder, a spokesman for Rubio.
In February, Cruz was forced to apologize to Ben Carson, who dropped out of the Republican race last week, after his campaign told caucusgoers in Iowa on caucus day that Carson was planning to quit the race. The Cruz campaign said at the time that it was just relaying information from news reports, but later it acknowledged that it was wrong to spread bad information.
But the Cruz campaign said it had nothing to do with the email, asserting that volunteers in Hawaii sent it without permission.
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