--- title: Republican Debate: Ted Cruz , CNN and Ben Carson Fact Check description: The Iowa winner tries some damage control canonical: https://time.com/4210992/republican-debate-ted-cruz-cnn-ben-carson/ author: Maya Rhodan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-07T05:18:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:46:35.191Z article:section: Politics og:title: Republican Debate: Ted Cruz , CNN and Ben Carson Fact Check og:description: The Iowa winner tries some damage control og:url: https://time.com/4210992/republican-debate-ted-cruz-cnn-ben-carson/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt130185b9475eb26a/69887c7c8e06010b064647ca/timepol-gop-republican-debate-new-hampshire-06.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: Republican U.S. presidential candidate Cruz and Carson discuss events between their campaigns during the Republican U.S. presidential candidates debate sponsored by ABC News at Saint Anselm College in Manchester og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Republican Debate: Ted Cruz , CNN and Ben Carson Fact Check twitter:description: The Iowa winner tries some damage control twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt130185b9475eb26a/69887c7c8e06010b064647ca/timepol-gop-republican-debate-new-hampshire-06.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ted Cruz Hides Truth With Debate Claim About Ben Carson Report > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Feb 7, 2016 5:18 AM UTC  Republican presidential candidates Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Dr. Ben Carson speak during a Republican presidential debate on Feb. 6, 2016 at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. Republican presidential candidates Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Dr. Ben Carson speak during a Republican presidential debate on Feb. 6, 2016 at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. Carlo Allegri—Reuters by [Maya Rhodan](https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Feb 7, 2016 5:18 AM UTC Faced with stinging criticism over an alleged dirty trick on the night of the Iowa caucuses, Sen. Ted Cruz placed the blame on a familiar foe: the news media. The Texas Republican argued at Saturday’s debate that CNN was responsible for the fact that his campaign staffers had said in emails and voicemails that retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson might be dropping out soon. “They reported that on television, CNN’s political anchors, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash and Wolf Blitzer, said it was highly unusual and highly significant,” Cruz said. “My political team saw CNN’s report breaking news and they forwarded that news to our volunteers, it was being covered on live television.” He then said that CNN “didn’t correct that story until 9:15 that night,” three hours later. But that’s not what happened, a fact that was quickly pointed out by several fact-checkers. PolitiFact, the Pulitzer-winning fact-checking website, [called that answer “highly misleading,”](http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/feb/06/ted-cruz/ted-cruz-falsely-says-cnn-first-said-ben-carson-wa/) ranking it “false,” while the Washington _Post_ said Cruz was [“playing fast and loose”](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/02/03/ted-cruz-on-dirty-trick-against-ben-carson-it-was-actually-cnns-fault/) with the facts. In a statement, CNN [said Cruz’s debate response was “categorically false.”](https://twitter.com/mdornic/status/696154123109015553) “CNN never corrected its reporting because CNN never had anything to correct,” the CNN statement read. “The Cruz campaign’s actions the night of the Iowa caucuses had nothing to do with CNN’s reporting. The fact that Senator Cruz continues to knowingly mislead the voters about this is astonishing.” Here are the basic facts: A CNN reporter [tweeted](https://twitter.com/moody/status/694320149432651776) that Carson would be returning home to Florida after the Iowa caucuses instead of heading out to campaign in New Hampshire and South Carolina. During [an on-air segment on CNN](http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1602/01/se.01.html), Capitol Hill correspondent Dana Bash said that the move was “very unusual” because candidates typically want to show supporters that they’re “hungry” for the nomination by campaigning a lot. Shortly afterward, the Cruz campaign [sent a message to supporters](http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2016/02/04/cruz-carson-email-trump-iowa-cnn/) that said, “The press is reporting that Dr. Ben Carson is taking time off from the campaign trail after Iowa and making a big announcement,” while a voicemail sent to precinct captains said Cruz would be [“suspending campaigning.”](http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/04/politics/ted-cruz-ben-carson-iowa-voicemails/) A message sent on the campaign’s mobile app said, “CNN is reporting that Ben Carson will stop campaigning after Iowa.” As Politifact concluded, the Cruz campaign took a took a true piece of information from CNN, that Carson was flying to Florida instead of New Hampshire, and characterized it to suggest something false, that Cruz might not continue his campaign. In the debate, Carson noted that a campaign staffer [died in a car accident](http://time.com/4186527/why-ted-cruz-had-a-terrible-tuesday/) leading up to the Iowa caucuses. “I will say” Carson said, “that I was very disappointed that members of his team thought so little of me that they thought that after having hundreds, if not thousands of volunteers and college students who sacrificed their time and were dedicated to the cause—one even died—to think that I would just walk away ten minutes before the caucus and say, ‘Forget about you guys.'” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4210992/republican-debate-ted-cruz-cnn-ben-carson/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4210992/republican-debate-ted-cruz-cnn-ben-carson/"},"headline":"Ted Cruz Hides Truth With Debate Claim About Ben Carson Report","datePublished":"2016-02-07T05:18:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:46:35.191Z","description":"The Iowa winner tries some damage control","url":"https://time.com/4210992/republican-debate-ted-cruz-cnn-ben-carson/","keywords":["ted cruz","2016 Election","Iowa","new hampshire","Dr. Benjamin S. 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