By Virginia Villa
On Monday, Senator Ted Cruz fired his top aide Rick Tyler over the spreading of a misleading video that attacked Marco Rubio. The video in question showed Rubio speaking with a staff member of the Cruz campaign holding a Bible, with subtitles suggesting that Rubio said there were “not many answers” in the Bible. Had the comments made by Rubio in the video been accurate, they could prove to be a major detriment, and perhaps the end, to Rubio’s campaign. In reality, Rubio said the Bible had “all the answers.”
Recently, Marco Rubio’s campaign has been gaining momentum, only narrowly losing second place to Cruz in South Carolina over the weekend. Both Rubio and Cruz have a chance to snag first place in the upcoming Nevada causes, where many of the voters are Hispanic-Americans. It is very possible that the video may have been released in attempt to smear Rubio and prevent further success in Nevada. Rick Tyler, who served as Cruz’s communications director, released the video, although this is not first time the Cruz campaign has been linked with activity meant to mislead voters. Cruz’s competitors, including Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, have consistently slated the Cruz Campaign as dishonest in attempt to dissuade voters from supporting Ted Cruz.
The firing is significant not only because it is Cruz’s first admission and acknowledgment of wrongdoing on his campaign, but because it comes on the eve of the Republican Nevada caucuses. There is no doubt that Marco Rubio will use this as leverage against Ted Cruz in Nevada on Tuesday night. After narrowly beating Rubio in South Carolina, the prospect of Cruz winning in Nevada now seems weak at best. Senator Cruz did not admit to being aware of the inaccuracies in the video, but stated that Murphy was a good spokesman who made “grave error in judgment.” Cruz went on to say that his campaign would never question the faith of another candidate, even if it were true that such remarks had been made.