If you had been following Twitter closely on Monday night as the votes came rolling in during the Iowa Caucus, you would assume, as many of us did, that Dr. Ben Carson was close to suspending his campaign.
Not only was he under-performing in the Caucus, but his campaign had announced he would be returning to Florida immediately to get clean clothes prompting many to wonder, “why now?”
.@RealBenCarson will be going to Florida to get fresh clothes b4 heading back out on the campaign trail. Not standing down.
— Jason Osborne (@Jmrhosborne) February 2, 2016
The rumors grew as the evening wore on, with some saying that Carson planned to skip campaigning in New Hampshire and South Carolina. Apparently, the majority of these rumors were spread by the Ted Cruz campaign who urged voters in Iowa to change from supporting Carson to supporting Trump by convincing them that Carson was close to quitting.
“At many of the precincts, information was disseminated that I was suspending my campaign, that I had dropped out, and anybody who was planning to vote for me was wasting their vote and, therefore, they should reconsider,” said Carson, who added that his camp also saw similar messaging via tweets and written correspondence.
“Like I said, if he didn’t know about this, he needs to get rid of the people who are responsible for that,” he said. “I mean, that would be a high priority for me. And if he did know about it, he needs to come out, admit what he did and try to offer a solution.
Carson demanded an apology from the Cruz camp, and Cruz acquiesced, releasing a statement of apology for not clarifying that Carson had said he would be returning.
It is very suspicious that Carson would choose this particular time to leave the campaign trial, but it appears that he is no dropping out any time soon.
