Ted Cruz Asks His Comms Director To Resign For Circulating Fake Rubio Vid

This story has been updated.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said Monday he asked national communications director Rick Tyler to resign after he tweeted a fake video that seemed to show Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) insulting the Bible.

Cruz told reporters on the campaign trail that Tyler is a “good man” who deleted the video once he realized the story wasn’t true.

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

The video, which captured an exchange between Rubio and a Cruz staffer holding a Bible, contained subtitles of Rubio saying there are “not many answers” in the Bible. Tyler posted the video on Twitter and Facebook and deleted the posts.

The Rubio campaign was quick surface a version of the video with a corrected transcript, in which the senator tells the staffer: “All the answers are in there.”

Tyler later said in an apology to Rubio, “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.”

Tyler was scheduled to appear on MSNBC this afternoon but abruptly left the building before going on, the network reported on air.

Independent Journal Review first reported on the video, which was posted by The Daily Pennsylvanian, an independent student news organization at the University of Pennsylvania.

The Cruz campaign has been dogged by allegations of “dirty tricks” since retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson accused the campaign of circulating false information that he was dropping out of the race during the Iowa caucuses.

Cruz said he wouldn’t discipline any staffers for the incident, saying “I don’t make a practice of scapegoating staff members when it’s politically convenient.”