The 2016 presidential election has been the most politically divided, racially charged, misogynistic, racist, nationalistic, violent, angry, abusive, childish, low-rent campaign in modern American history. The only thing that had been missing was a rumoured sex scandal… until now.
Ted Cruz, a constitutional lawyer from Texas, was the subject of a National Enquirer report on Friday that alleged he’d enjoyed extra-marital affairs with five women.
The unconfirmed tabloid reporting said the presidential hopeful boasted mistresses including a “foxy political consultant and a high-placed D.C. attorney."
Twitter picked up on the story, leaving many aghast that Cruz, a man cursed with the charisma of a sea cucumber, could be the subject of such licentious allegations.
The National Enquirer story comes amid a particularly nasty piece of in-fighting between Trump and Cruz over their wives.
A superPAC supporting Cruz called 'Make America Awesome' posted an advert ahead of the Utah Primary earlier this week showing Trump's wife in a British GQ shoot from 2000.
As Salon noted, "The suggestive picture... was used by an anti-Trump group hoping to gin up Mormon voters with appeals to their morality in an effort to ramp up the anti-Trump vote."
Election campaigns are not legally allowed to co-ordinate with a SuperPAC, meaning Cruz likely knew nothing about the advert. Still, Trump responded with a direct threat to his rival:
Cruz responding with a plea of innocence:
Which was followed by the ungallant retweet from Trump:
Cruz responded by calling Trump a 'snivelling coward" but refused to rule out voting for him should he become the eventual Republican nominee.
Which brings us to Friday and the National Enquirer report, a story that was brought up during a live segment on CNN in which former Cruz campaign staff member Amanda Carpenter was accused of being one of the "five women" cited in the report. Carpenter was appearing on the show while the accusation was being made.
All of which forced Cruz to publically deny the report via Facebook. He even suggesting “Donald Trump and his henchmen” had a hand in placing the story at the tabloid.
All the while, Democratic Party grandees were no doubt walking around with a fixed grin at the unfolding GOP fiasco.