Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is just appalled at the tone of the GOP presidential race. Shame on his opponents.
"Oh, listen, there's no doubt that both Donald [Trump] and Marco [Rubio] got very personal, got very nasty. And both of them, when you point to their records, they follow the same pattern," Cruz lamented in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday. "They scream, 'Liar, liar, liar,' they impugn your integrity, they attack your character."
"And as you know, from the very beginning of this campaign, nearly a year now, I have consistently refused to respond in kind," he continued. "I am not going to impugn anyone's integrity, I am not going to attack their character. And in fact, I will happily praise both Donald Trump and Marco Rubio as men whom I admire, as people who -- I'm not going to go personal with them."
While there has been plenty of nastiness to go around, Cruz and his campaign certainly haven't been above the fray. In fact, many of the dirtiest attacks during the primary in South Carolina -- a state known for dirty politics -- seemed to come from Cruz and his allies.
There was the Cruz campaign mailer that seemingly darkened Rubio's skin while making him look like a mirror image of President Barack Obama.
A pro-Cruz super PAC went after Trump for supporting the removal of the Confederate battle flag from state capitol grounds, while the Cruz campaign put out a robocall attacking Trump for being overly supportive of equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Trump also accused Cruz of launching a robocall campaign against him. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) said Cruz's team put up a fake Facebook page making it appear as if the congressman had retracted his endorsement of Rubio. The Cruz campaign denied it was behind those attacks and has accused Rubio of making things up.
"Rubio's tactics continue to stoop lower and lower," his spokeswoman Catherine Frazier told The Huffington Post last week. "He's making false accusations against Ted Cruz to distract voters and press from asking him about his own liberal record because he’s unable to defend it on the substance."
Much of the distrust stems from what the Cruz campaign did to Ben Carson in Iowa. In that state, Cruz staffers spread false rumors that the neurosurgeon was dropping out of the race and said his supporters should get behind the Texas senator. Cruz later apologized to Carson.
Cruz, of course, isn't the only one slinging mud. Trump has called the senator a "pussy" and questioned whether he is eligible to be president because he was born in Canada. In New Hampshire, the super PAC supporting Rubio ran ads with Cruz's face in a Canadian maple leaf.
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