Remember, Trump's entire justification for (a) threatening to exploit Heidi Cruz's past struggles with depression and (b) retweeting a mean-spirited image ridiculing her physical appearance is that Lyin' Ted "started it" by releasing an ad highlighting a racy photo of Trump's wife, Melania. Setting aside the juvenile nature of this explanation ("with all due respect, sir, that's the argument of a five-year-old.") it's always been factually false.
The original photo that Trump says triggered his impulse-control-challenged histrionics surfaced because of a $300 Facebook ad buy from Make America Awesome, an anti-Trump SuperPAC with no affiliation to Cruz. Ignoring facts to the contrary, Trump continues to publicly accuse Cruz of approving or knowing about the ad, which would be a federal elections crime if true. He offers zero substantiating evidence, of course. Meanwhile, Cruz has alleged that Trump is behind a separate National Enquirer smear piece, even though those bread crumbs haven't been connected either. Sure, there's plenty of circumstantial evidence: The tabloid has endorsed Trump, who is very close with its CEO -- who, in turn, has reportedly instructed his "journalists" to lay off the celebrity billionaire. Plus, the only person quoted in the story is former Trump campaign aide and longtime confidante Roger Stone. But all of that still doesn't represent definitive corroboration that Team Trump planted the story, even though they've aggressively highlighted and circulated in an exceedingly unseemly manner. Which brings us to Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign manager who has been arrested for simple battery against a female reporter. Here's how he pushed back against Cruz's contention that the unsourced, evidence-free Enquirer smear was a Trump hit job:
Donald Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, said in a radio interview on Tuesday that Ted Cruz’s campaign was not involved in an attack ad on Trump’s wife, Melania. Lewandowski’s comments contradict his own candidate’s repeated claims the Cruz campaign was responsible. Lewandowski made the comments on the John Fredericks Show, where he denied the Trump campaign had any involvement with a National Enquirer story alleging Cruz had affairs with five different women. Roger Stone, a long time Trump aide who is no longer affiliated with the campaign, was quoted in the story. “I have no control over what Roger Stone does, doesn’t work for the campaign. He’s an independent individual who has no relationship with the campaign in any way, shape, or form,†said Lewandowski. “For them to intimate otherwise is completely inaccurate and it’s a narrative that they want to continue to perpetuate. The bottom line is Roger Stone is as much tied to this campaign as the super PAC that leaked that is tied to the Cruz campaign.â€
Stone is actually much more explicitly tied to Trumpworld than Make America Awesome is to Cruz, but the point his well taken nonetheless. Last night on CNN, Trump claimed that "everybody knows that [Cruz] sent [the Melania ad] out." Lewandowski is saying exactly the opposite -- and correctly so, as it happens.
http://townhall.com/tipsheet/guybenson/2016/03/30/lewandowski-actually-cruz-had-nothing-to-do-with-that-photo-of-melania-n2141228
