The National Enquirer hit news stands this week with explosive allegations that Sen. Ted Cruz has carried on extra-marital affairs with as many as five women. Although the Enquirer didn't name the mistresses, it gave titillating hints of who they were (a sexy school teacher, a D.C. lawyer, a foxy political consultant, a hot babe and a $1,000 a night prostitute) and included pixelated images of the women. The names of the alleged mistresses named in the tabloid story have surfaced in some media reports and a couple of those identified have offered general denials.
Sen. Cruz gave mainstream media an excuse to talk about the alleged affairs when he spoke to reporters today to blast the rumors as "tabloid garbage" and accused Donald Trump and his hinchmen of planting the story, an accusation Trump denies. The National Enquirer is actually owned by an old Clinton political crony, Roger Altman, and other reports have suggested that allies of Sen. Marco Rubio have been peddling the story of Cruz' alleged affairs for months.
Interestingly, one of the identified mistresses is a former Cruz campaign worker who now works for Donald Trump's presidential campaign as a spokesperson. Trump's former, long-time political adviser, Roger Stone, has peddled the story, but he separated from Trump about the time he kicked off his presidential campaign to promote his new book, "The Clintons' War On Women."
Amanda Carpenter, Cruz' former spokesperson, and Katrina Pierson, a former Cruz campaign worker now working for Trump, both denied having an affair with Cruz when their names were identified as two of the women named in the Enquirer report. Sarah Isgur Flores, another former Cruz campaign worker who most recently worked on Carly Fiorina's presidential campaign, has also been identified as one of the alleged mistresses. Some news sources are suggesting there may be something untoward about a $500,000 campaign contribution made to Fiorina's campaign by a super PAC supporting Cruz about the time Flores joined her campaign,
Whoever is the source of the story, the allegations can't be summarily dismissed just because it was reported by a tabloid newspaper like the Enquirer, particularly one that has broken news of several other high-profile affairs, including former Sen. Gary Hart, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Tiger Woods and John Edwards. All of those reports were met with initial denials, only to be later confirmed as true. The messiness of it all has to be music to the ears of Hillary Clinton and Democrats who are just sitting back and watching the Republicans cannibalize their own.
Response to the cover story in this week's National Enquirer about Lyin' Ted Cruz: https://t.co/FRFN9JC1QJ— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 25, 2016
I continue to be impressed with @tedcruz uncanny ability to lie with a straight face #Cruzsexscandal— Roger Stone (@RogerJStoneJr) March 26, 2016
22 comments:
I'd be pretty surprised if my friend, Amanda, were involved. She is, after all, a very bright BSU graduate, married, with two kids, I think. I'm sure she is well compensated for her job with CNN (I think) as a commentator but could use the extra money from suing the National Enquirer under the Hulk Hogan dispensation.
The National Enquirer actually has a pretty solid reputation for rooting out the truth of these sex affairs. I hate that Cruz guy. He just grates on me like fingernails on the blackboard. I don't know what it is. Just can't stand to hear him talk. I'd vote for anybody else over him.
From the Guardian Newspaper:
>> A Super Pac with no ties to the Cruz campaign running a Facebook ad that featured a partially nude picture of a Trump’s now-wife, Melania, from a GQ photo shoot in 2000.
The ad, which was targeted at female members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Utah, suggested voters back Cruz. The message, overlying an image of Trump’s wife lying on a fur rug read: “Meet Melania Trump. Your Next First Lady. Or, You Could Support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.” <<<
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So the ad that featured Melania Trump, "Your Next First Lady. Or, You Could Support Ted Cruz on Tuesday.” Clearly had nothing to do with Ted Cruz, HA, Ha, HA. It was a "Cruz" Missile and not to stealthy. The Super PAC that ran the Ad, clearly endorsed Ted Cruz. Sorry Teddy Boy, guilt by association, no plausible denial here.
Amanda Carpenter proposed building a blacklist of Trump supporters and then making them pay (blackmail? extortion? who knows?) at a later date. Here, check it out: https://www.conservativereview.com/commentary/2016/03/blackballing-those-who-endorse-trump.
Not only did she float it, she populated it. RedState.com and Leon Wolf think it's a great idea! These people are the very personification of what is wrong with America. They are no different than ideological liberals. They want our money. They want control over our lives. Given that, I am inclined to believe every line of the NE story. It fits. Amanda Carpenter is dirt, not because she allegedly sleeps with sanctimonious self-serving liars like Cruz but because she attempts to intimidate and bully others into seeing it her way...kinda like a liberal or a common street punk. Karma appears to have found Ms. Carpenter, and that's a very good thing.
Paul has lost his senses over Trump. Amanda Carpenter, my friend, is not even close to dirt. The referenced article is quite useful should anyone ever wish to hold folks to account. Amanda is a huge talent...BSU grad whose antics even yet amuse the conservatives....of whom she is an upcoming leader. I think she errs only with including Palin and Sessions on her list but one can be forgiven for the incidental errors when one has been a Director of Communications for Senator Cruz and before that worked with Jim Demint before his hat size increased. I think she might have also been with Human Events.
So, I'd like to see her sue NE under the hulk hogan meme and have already so advised her to do so.
LamLaw: What's your angle, because I know you have one. Your comment is bizarre.
1. Jeb Bush, Chris Christie or one of the other would-be nominees were not threatened by Cruz. His rise to prominence has been pretty quick. He wasn't even on their radar.
2. Team Rubio apparently shopped the story for some time, so apparently it WAS used.
3. What's the deal with $500K to Carly? The FEC wants to know. I get that Cruzbots don't want to talk about this, but seriously.
4. I have no idea what Katrina Pierson's motivation is. Neither do you. Even if she wasn't involved, it doesn't mean the others weren't.
5. What's with Amanda Carpenter's blacklist? Do you support her brand of fascism? Just wondering.
Lam, from what I've read about you online, you're a fan of ideological purity tests for conservatives. Please understand that if you would have applied the same standard to Reagan at this stage of his political life as you're applying to Trump, the Great Communicator would have failed your test. He signed a pro abortion bill and the largest tax increase in state history while governor of California. So please spare us all the self-righteous hyperbole. Either your candidate is clean, in which case he has nothing to fear, or he's not...in which case he should be done if for no other reason than his sanctimonious hypocrisy. Either way, transparency is a good thing...though it may sometime get ugly.
Gary, your blog is better than this. Don't you think that -- if there was any truth to this -- it would have been used long ago by Jeb Bush, Chris Christie or one of the other would-be nominees? Most tellingly, Katrina Pierson -- who now works for Trump -- has denied it; she has every incentive to corroborate the story if it was true.
Disregarding the commonplace family values sex scandal what choice is there? The Racist or the Anti-Christ?
Ted Cruz Super Pac "Keep The Promise" contributed $500,000 to the Carly Fiorina campaign a few months back. A Fiorina staffer had a video of Cruz with one the named mistresses.
Robert Mercer paid for the tape. He owns Breitbart as well as Keep The Promise Pac. Breitbart as well as the Drudge Report are Cruz supporters and both had the Cruz tape.
Cruz is fraudulent political whore in bed with the neocons and Wall Street. He's an unnerving nasal sounding slimy hypocrite who looks like Grandpa in the Munster's.
Ted's an evangelical fraud and he's going to pay a price for his pandering.
My money's on the National Enquirer, they're just getting started.
So Ted Cruz coordinated an attack with an anti-Trump PAC to attack Trump's wife even though the attack would undermine his efforts. Seriously?
Leon, as far as my losing my mind over my opposition to Trump, I'm sorry but I want a candidate who actually upholds my conservative values. I don't think the Republicans should nominate a New York liberal. It's sad to see that while you say you support the pro-life cause you support Trump who is "very pro choice" and supports partial birth abortion.
Anyone who thinks a presidential candidate has time to carry on five affairs in the midst of a presidential campaign...well I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.
Anon 9:56, do you really want to get into an ethical comparison to your boy, Donald Trump?
If securing the borders of the United States, accounting for all illegal aliens in this county and keeping unknown Muslims out is racist then count me as a racist too. In addition to that, I have never heard Trump make racist remarks against African Americans, ever.
The racist Trump straw man crap gets a little old after a while.
I hope they have a lot of money. I think the Gawker precedent for punitive damages will apply.
The divorced Reagan had a life style that would not survive a National Enquirer inquiry. As noted above, Ronnie signed one of the first abortion on demand laws (later came to regret it). So, people can change their minds? Or, they can be persuaded by electoral realities to alter their opinions. The discussion of politicians and ethics might be quite amusing if we had world enough and time to drag in JFK, RFK, MLK and any number of other miscreants who failed to meet even minimal standards.
The Republicans are not conservatives. As in Indiana, they are venal, pretty much without ethics or morals as are the run of the mill liberals. As for being pro life, I am but I am also a Democrat and can exist while waiting for them to rediscover morality, principles, an end to their Marxism. The bar for being an American President has been consistently lowered-some don't care if the person is an American or not. I find it interesting that Sarah Palin has endorsed Trump but so has Phyllis Shaffly? Palin also got Cruz elected as Senator. What do these ladies understand ? Dumping the parasite class might be worth doing....removing from influence all those people who have lied and lied and lied while waxing rich. Sure, Trump or Cruz would, should they win, be able to clean house and house cleaning seems to be what people want.
Conservative values? You can't be serious Ogden. Your knowledge of politics is so sorely lacking that it borders on the idiotic. If you think that Trump is pulling in liberal voters I'll gladly sell that bridge to YOU!
Robert Mercer, a Cruz btw, did buy those ads against Trump in Utah. Yes, it backfired on Cruz. Cruz needs a course in Politics 101 just like you.
Anon7:45, it matters little to me whether Trump is "pulling in" liberal, conservative, libertarian, or socialist voters. Let's look at Trump's views:
* against the protection of unborn human life (until he decided to run for the GOP nomination)
* against the right to keep & bear arms (again, until he decided to run for the GOP nomination)
* against entitlement reform
* against auditing the Federal Reserve (much less eliminating it)
* against free trade (guess who's going to pay the 45% tariffs on Chinese goods...you & me!)
* vocally supported TARP (the bank bailout)
* strongly backs govt takings of private property for big developers (_Kelo_ takings)
I cannot & will not vote for a candidate who will remake the GOP into a statist monstrosity. The reason I've always been a Republican is because I believe that less govt is better & that our federal system devolves (or should devolve) power to the States. A Trump GOP is anathema to my beliefs.
Anon7:32 & 9:36, I don't know Amanda Carpenter personally but am somewhat confused by your question regarding her "blacklist" & "her brand of fascism."
First, did you read the article? Carpenter never mentions extortion or anything of the sort. She specifically says that "each and every one of [Trump's] endorsers should be held accountable in their future elections or political ventures." That makes sense to me: if you back a statist's campaign, then you probably are a statist too. An anti-statist like myself would, obviously, want to avoid helping a statist candidate.
Second, her actions in no way are "fascist." "Fascism" by definition involves govt action, the idea that all individual yearnings should take a back seat to the "good" of the state: because Carpenter is calling for individual, voluntary action, the idea that her actions are somehow "fascist" is inapposite.
You ARE correct that I espouse a baseline "purity" test for candidates. I don't vote for the person who I'd like to "have a beer" with. Sen. Ted Cruz, for example, fails in the "foreign misadventures" test: he would continue US troop deployments in Europe and the Middle East. Donald Trump, however, fails many more of my "tests."
Don't call opposition to abortion a "conservative" value. Ronald Reagan was as conservative as most of us care about, and he did not hold that puritanical view. No. In fact this obsession with abortion is not a "conservative" value but rather a puritanical, evangelical Christian obsession not shared by most people.
And as regards free trade, few fiscally conservatives believe that makes good sense, because other governments cheat and subsidize or devalue or undercut. So Trump is right on this one, we need a line by line, country by country trade reorganization, not some weird, doomed to fail "free trade" system.
The Federal Reserve is independent and doesn't need to be "audited" by a bunch of wacko conspiracy ideologues who only want to use such an audit to advance their own monetarist policies. We are the richest country on earth. The Fed is fine.
Trump is the best negotiator for trade we have. I think we would do better to follow Sanders. But I really admire Trump the negotiator. Cruz is horrible. I'll never vote for the man waving the Bible, and I really wonder if the womanizing is true. I don't trust him. I don't like him.
4:34 If you don't think that Trump is a racist then explain why did he lost 2 separate discrimination lawsuits against Trump real estate and another one against his AC casino.
Anon, in no way is allowing the intentional killing of unborn humans "conservative" or humane. Indeed, that's why abortion was illegal by statute up until the 70s.
The Fed is independent??? I have oceanfront property in Marion County to sell you too. And I'm not a monetarist: Monetarists have no problem with fiat currencies. I do.
Lam, I read you a lot, and I don't think you understand macroeconomics or fiat currencies or anything of the sort. We don't let small town lawyers run Federal Reserve policy for a reason. You want on the Board? Nobody's stopping you. Till then your shared sympathy with Ron and Rand Paul and their need to audit our gold is probably little more than a paranoid obsession. Seems like you Indy lawyers are the most paranoid guys in the midwest. Do you think the Boston Marathon and World Trade Center were false flag events too? What is it with you guys? Get a grip.
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