Ted Cruz suddenly asked his top spokesman to resign for spreading 'false' Marco Rubio story

CNN

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz has asked his top spokesman to resign after he spread a video that purportedly showed rival Marco Rubio dismissing the Bible.

"I asked for Rick Tyler's resignation," Cruz told reporters Monday. "I had made clear in this campaign that we will conduct this campaign with the very highest standards of integrity."

Cruz added:

That has been how we've conducted it from day one. It is why when other campaigns attack us personally, impugn my integrity or my character, I don't respond in kind. None of you have heard me throw the kind of insults at Marco Rubio that he throws at me every single day.

Cruz's campaign has been accused of "dirty tricks" in recent days, and this morning Rubio asked who would be held accountable for sharing the misleading video.

Cruz has also accused his rivals of shady tactics.

The latest firestorm started over the weekend when Tyler, Cruz's top spokesman, posted a video on his Facebook page that purported to show Rubio pointing to a Bible a Cruz staffer was holding in a hotel lobby and saying "not many answers" are in it.

Rubio in fact said that "all the answers are in there" as he gestured toward the Bible.

Tyler later apologized, but Cruz still cut him loose.

He defended Tyler as a "good man" who made "a grave error in judgment."

Cruz said that even if the video were accurate, Tyler shouldn't have shared it.

"We are not a campaign that is going to question the faith of another candidate," Cruz said. "The standards of conduct in this campaign have been made absolutely clear for every member of the campaign."

In the apology on his Facebook page, Tyler wrote:

I want to apologize to Senator Marco Rubio for posting an inaccurate story about him here earlier today. The story showed a video of the Senator walking past a Ted Cruz staffer seated in the lobby of a hotel reading his Bible. The story misquoted a remark the Senator made to the staffer. I assumed wrongly that the story was correct. According to the Cruz staffer, the Senator made a friendly and appropriate remark. Since the audio was unclear, I should not have assumed the story was correct. I've deleted the post because I would not knowingly post a false story. But the fact remains that I did post it when I should have checked its accuracy first. I regret the mistake.

The Rubio campaign released a statement defending Tyler and blasting Cruz:

Rick is a really good spokesman who had the unenviable task of working for a candidate willing to do or say anything to get elected. There is a culture in the Cruz campaign, from top to bottom, that no lie is too big and no trick too dirty. Rick did the right thing by apologizing to Marco. It's high time for Ted Cruz to do the right thing and stop the lies.

Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump, who has often called Cruz a "liar" and accused him of dirty campaigning, quickly jumped into the fray.

Wow, Ted Cruz falsely suggested Marco Rubio mocked the Bible and was just forced to fire his Communications Director. More dirty tricks!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 22, 2016

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