Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 06:07 pm
After being accused of printing a false story by the Ted Cruz presidential campaign, PoliticusUSA asked Cruz to provide proof that he or one of his super PACs did not buy his own books. The result has been complete silence from the Cruz campaign.
The New York Times refused to place Ted Cruz on their bestseller list because they found evidence that Cruz or someone supporting him tried to rig the game by buying his books in bulk. Cruz responded by calling The New York Times a bunch of liberal liars who are trying to blackball his book.
I explained how Cruz, or most likely a group of three super PACs who are supporting him followed what has become a standard Republican candidate practice of buying books in bulk in order to land on the bestseller list.
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For daring to use facts and evidence, I was accused of printing a false story by Brian Phillips, who is a Senior Communications aide for Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign:
.@PoliticusJason @politicususa Your story is false and the New York Times are liars. http://t.co/ZnNC8WmGzb
— Brian Phillips (@RealBPhil) July 10, 2015
No one likes to be accused of publishing false information, but since the Cruz campaign gave me the opportunity, I thought I would raise a few points that bothered me about their story, and ask them to release their proof that The New York Times lied:
@RealBPhil And you have released 0 sales data to prove your point. Who has motivation to lie? The dying campaign of Cruz or NYT?
— Jason Easley (@PoliticusJason) July 10, 2015
@RealBPhil If you have sales data showing source of bulk purchase was not affiliated Super PAC’s release it!!!!
— Jason Easley (@PoliticusJason) July 10, 2015
@RealBPhil @politicususa If you have sales data that shows proof of super PAC purchases, that would be illegal coordination, so prove it.
— Jason Easley (@PoliticusJason) July 10, 2015
The publisher of the book is HarperCollins, which is owned by NewsCorp, which is Rupert Murdoch, so the fact that the publisher of the book is standing behind Cruz doesn’t mean a whole lot. If Cruz had proof that The Times lied, his campaign would have already released it but his campaign has provided no actual sales data to support their claims.
Logic and common sense both suggest that the newspaper has nothing to gain by keeping Cruz off of the bestseller list. However, the struggling Republican presidential candidate has every motivation to lie and cheat to get himself on the bestseller list. Ted Cruz is mired in the lower middle of the Republican pack. His presidential campaign has raised a lot of super PAC money but has very little buzz surrounding it. Cruz is one of the Republican candidates who has been trampled by the Trump media juggernaut, and the campaign needed to do something to get attention.
Ted Cruz got caught trying to cheat, and now he is trying to spin his guilt into a war with The New York Times to boost his presidential campaign. It is campaigning 101. Cruz’s team is trying to spin a negative into a positive.
Calling someone a liar without supporting evidence is not presidential behavior, so I am once again calling on the Ted Cruz campaign to release the sales data for his book and prove me and The New York Times wrong.
However, the overwhelming silence of the Cruz campaign suggests that their proof does not exist.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association