Amid the nasty feud between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz over their wives, a tabloid on Friday claimed that Cruz has had “extramarital affairs” with five unidentified women, prompting the enraged Texas Senator to dismiss the story as “garbage” and blaming its publication on “sleazy Donald”.
Trump lost little time to put out a statement, remarking that he had “no idea” whether the story in the weekly was true, but asserting that he had “absolutely nothing to do with it”.
The National Enquirer, a supermarket tabloid specializing in celebrity gossip that endorsed Trump for president earlier this month, ran the story under the caption: “A hooker, a teacher and coworkers: 5 romps that will destroy Ted Cruz!”
It did not name the five women but published photos with faces blurred out. Two of the women who appeared to be pictured came forward on their own to trash the allegations. One of them, who had once worked for Cruz but is now a spokeswoman for Trump, said that speaking for herself, the report was “100% false”.
A spokesperson for the Enquirer asserted that no outsider influences its reporting, telling CNN in an email statement: “We stand by the integrity of our coverage and remain committed to our aggressive reporting on such an important topic.”
Cruz, speaking to reporters at a campaign stop in Wisconsin, sought to highlight the Enquirer’s endorsement of his rival as he debunked the story and blamed it entirely on “Trump and his henchmen”.
“let me be clear, this National Enquirer story is garbage. It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear, and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen,” Cruz said.
“What is striking is Donald’s henchman, Roger Stone, had for months been foreshadowing that this attack was coming,” Cruz said. Stone used to be a longtime political adviser to Trump, who reportedly cut ties with him last August.
Reacting to Cruz’s accusations, Trump said in his statement: “I have nothing to do with the National Enquirer and unlike lyin’ Ted Cruz I do not surround myself with political hacks and henchman and then pretend total innocence.”
“Ted Cruz’s problem with the National Enquirer is his and his alone, and while they (the tabloid) were right about O.J. Simpson (former American football star now serving a 33 year prison sentence for kidnapping and armed robbery), John Edwards (former Democratic presidential hopeful), and many others, I certainly hope they are not right about lyin’ Ted Cruz,” Trump commented.
Trump and Cruz, along with John Kasich, will soon be gearing up for their next primary contest in Wisconsin on April 5.
On the Democratic side, meanwhile, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were on Saturday bracing for the day’s three primaries in Alaska, Hawaii and Washington.
Despite trailing way behind Clinton in the delegate count, Sanders is continuing to run a spirited campaign, making it clear he will take the contest right up to the party convention in Philadelphia in July.