Ted Cruz Asks Communications Director Rick Tyler to Resign Amid Latest Allegation

Sen. Ted Cruz asked his communications director Rick Tyler to resign after posting a false report about Marco Rubio slamming the Bible, Cruz told reporters in Nevada on Monday.

“We are not a campaign that’s going to question the faith of another candidate,” Cruz said.

Tyler on Sunday began pushing a video published initially by a Pennsylvania college publication, in which Rubio appeared to tell a Cruz aide reading the Bible that there are “not many answers in it.” But the video, which was picked up by The Right Scoop, actually showed the opposite: Rubio telling the man that “all the answers are in” the Bible.

“I’ve deleted the post because I would not knowingly post a false story,” Tyler wrote Monday in a Facebook post. “But the fact remains that I did post it when I should have checked its accuracy first. I regret the mistake.”

However, Rubio, who along with Donald J. Trump has repeatedly accused Cruz of running a dishonest and even cheating campaign, continued to hammer the move, suggesting as Ben Carson did after Iowa that Cruz should fire someone.

“At some point there has to be some level of accountability,” Rubio said. “Otherwise, you’re sending the message to the people who work for you: Go out and do anything you want and if you get caught we’ll just apologize, but we’ll keep doing it.”

Later Monday, as it began to sink in that he couldn’t ignore or dismiss the story, such as the previous incidents, Cruz asked Tyler to resign. Cruz’s decision clearly caught Tyler by surprise. Just minutes prior, Tyler appeared on “Shepard Smith Reporting” on Fox News–which followed an appearance on “America’s Newsroom” earlier in the day, and he was preparing for an MSNBC appearance when he abruptly left, according to a reporter for that network.

The Cruz campaign has been plagued with allegations–and evidence–of cheating and playing dirty tricks that have clearly taken a political toll on his campaign. Rubio and Trump hammered away on the incident as further proof Cruz is a dishonest campaigner, which has now turned into a narrative since it surfaced that his team misled Iowa caucus-goers.

The Texas senator finished a disastrous third far behind Trump and narrowly behind Rubio in a state that was comprised of nearly three-quarters evangelical.

“Wow, Ted Cruz falsely suggested Marco Rubio mocked the Bible and was just forced to fire his Communications Director,” Trump tweeted Monday. “More dirty tricks!”

Tyler’s firing will leave Cruz without his top communications aide at a pivotal juncture in the Republican primary, with just one week until Super Tuesday on March 1. Cruz will need to perform strongly in the 11 states voting that day, many of which skew conservative, to have a shot at the nomination.

In fact, a PPD survey of South Carolina evangelicals conducting during the week leading up to the primary found nearly half (42%) thought Cruz cheated in the Iowa caucus and probably cost Trump the election. The incident and development also comes after a photoshopped image of Rubio shaking hands with President Barack Obama was proven to be a fake. There was also a fake Facebook page supposedly representing South Carolina Rep. Trey Gowdy, which claimed he changed his endorsement to Cruz.

The Cruz campaign denied being behind either.