Ted Cruz fires top staffer for dirty tactics questioning Rubio's faith -- then blames Rubio
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Monday said that he had asked for the resignation of Communications Director Rick Tyler after the staffer posted a fake video showing GOP hopeful Marco Rubio disparaging the Bible.
Over the weekend, Tyler had reportedly shared a video that claimed to show Rubio saying that there were "not many answers" in the Bible.
On Sunday, the staffer apologized on Facebook.
"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," Tyler wrote. "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."
At a press conference on Monday, Cruz said that he had decided to fire Tyler after conducting an investigation.
"We are not a campaign that is going to question the faith of another candidate," Cruz insisted. "Even if it were true, our campaign should not have sent it. That's why I have asked for Rick Tyler's resignation. Because the standards of conduct in this campaign have been made absolutely clear for every member of the campaign."
The Texas Senator also placed part of the blame for Tyler's departure on Rubio's campaign.
"I understand that Marco's campaign team believes it's politically advantageous to try to distract the topic from his own record," Cruz said. "And they have a long record they've earned in South Carolina of engaging in this kind of trickery, and impugning the integrity of opponents to distract the attention."
"We are going to stay focused on issues and substance and record."
Watch the doctored video below.