Ben Carson: Ted Cruz’s ‘Washington Ethics’ Are ‘Not My Ethics’

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — GOP presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson invoked President Ronald Reagan’s – someone fellow candidate Sen. Ted Cruz has channeled while campaigning – 11th commandment, attempting to avoid attacking Ted Cruz during the GOP primary debate Saturday night in Manchester, New Hampshire.

“Today is the 105th anniversary, or 105th birthday, of Ronald Reagan. His 11th Commandment was not to speak ill of another Republican. So, I’m not going to use this opportunity to savage the reputation of Senator Cruz,” Carson said, referencing news that the Cruz campaign sent notes and voicemails to precinct captains encouraging them to tell Iowa caucus-goers that Carson was “suspending campaigning” and to urge Carson supporters to caucus for Cruz instead.

Carson said:

But I will say — I will say — I will say 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.’

I mean, who would do something like that? Now, I don’t think anyone on this stage would do something like that. And to assume that someone would, what does that tell you? So, unfortunately, it did happen.

It gives us a very good example of certain types of Washington ethics. Washington ethics. Washington ethics basically says, if it’s legal, you do what you need to do in order to win. That’s not my ethics. My ethics is, you do what’s right.

Cruz responded, apologizing to Carson for what occurred. He blamed CNN’s reporting of the news and their not correcting the story until 9:15 PM that night.

“So from 6:30 p.m. to 9:15, that’s what CNN was reporting,” Cruz explained.

Carson responded, disagreeing with Cruz’s timeline, “But the bottom line is, we can see what happened, everybody can see what happened and you can make your own judgment.”