Continuing to hammer Sen. Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign (R-TX) on Wednesday night, a spokeswoman for rival Donald Trump resurfaced Cruz’s campaign manager’s role in an attack ad that aired days before a gubernatorial candidate in Missouri took his own life last year.
Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said on Fox News’ “On The Record With Greta Van Susteren” that Trump wasn’t the first victim of Cruz’s attack ads.
“This is not unheard of. The campaign manager for Sen. Cruz has actually caused a candidate in Missouri to commit suicide over attack ads,” Pierson said. “So what Mr. Trump is saying, this is why good people don’t run for office.”
The candidate Pierson was referring to was former Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich (R), who committed suicide in February 2015. (Pierson mistakenly referred to Schweich as a candidate for lieutenant governor). In the days before Schweich took his own life, an outside group aired a radio ad that likened him to a bumbling “Andy Griffith Show” character and portrayed him as a pawn of Democrats in Washington, D.C.
Cruz’s campaign manager, Jeff Roe, later admitted to financing the ad with $8,300 of his own money. At the time, Roe also was managing the campaign of Schweich’s main opponent in the Republican gubernatorial primary. Roe told The Kansas City Star that he wouldn’t have run the ad if he’d known about Schweich’s mental state.
Police said they found no evidence to provide a motive for the suicide.
At the time of Schweich’s death, Roe was a senior adviser to Cruz building out a national infrastructure for his anticipated presidential run. He previously worked for the presidential campaigns of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R) and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R).
Pierson told Van Susteren that attack ads are par for the course when it comes to the Cruz campaign.
“This is ridiculous. You should be able to run for office and put out your message and go to the vote,” she said. “You shouldn’t have to deal with smears and just these out-right lies with some of these things.”
h/t Mediaite
Assuming the Dems win the 2016 POTUS election, the 2020 GOP race is unimaginable.
Trump is going to be the nominee in 2016, which means that Cruz will be the nominee in 2020.
Boy, this guy really has a taste for losers.
From what I have seen of Katrina Pierson she is just as evil and underhanded as Cruz’s buddy.
It’s the Christian in him. God makes him do it. Look into Cruz’s eyes…and you can see God saying “go fuck em up”.