HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The Donald Trump campaign denied it accused Texas Sen. [crscore]Ted Cruz[/crscore] of buying off loyalties of delegates Thursday. Trump campaign surrogate Michael Cohen told CNN’s Chris Cuomo Thursday that the Cruz campaign is bribing delegates to support his campaign.
“I didn’t see what he said. I didn’t see the interview. So sorry,” Trump campaign political strategist Rick Wiley told The Daily Caller after he and Trump campaign senior adviser Paul Manafort made a presentation to Republican National Committee members, most of whom are delegates to the RNC Convention.
When pressed further about bribery accusations regarding Cruz’s delegate strategy from the Trump camp, Wiley responded, “I don’t think you saw that coming out of our campaign.”
However, Trump aide Michael Cohen said to CNN, “What’s this notion of courting delegates? It’s so wrong. What’s the word ‘courting’ mean? Taking them out—wining and dining them. In essence, what are you doing? You’re really bribing delegates with free rides and food and trips. That’s not the American way.”
I win a state in votes and then get non-representative delegates because they are offered all sorts of goodies by Cruz campaign. Bad system!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 10, 2016
Trump surrogate Tana Goertz, the campaign’s co-chair in Iowa, made the same accusation on CNN Tuesday.
“Is that sort of an admission that up until this point Ted Cruz has been doing it better?” CNN’s John Berman asked her.
“Oh, no, no, no, not gathering delegates, stealing, lying, and bribing people to become delegates. I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear,” Goertz said. “Bribing people to be a delegate for him and what he’ll promise them, I do not know, because I actually didn’t have a recording device to hear the bribes, but I have seen it in action. I’m on the ground.”
Goertz continued when asked further about the allegations, “Well, once I talk to Mr. Trump about it and he says that I’m at liberty to say these things, I will be more than happy to come back on your show and explain to you about what I saw and what I know is going on and the shadiness that Ted Cruz and his campaign do.”
Goertz’s and Cohen’s accusations were not far from what Trump himself said on April 10, following Cruz’s Colorado sweep of the state’s delegates. He tweeted, “I win a state in votes and then get non-representative delegates because they are offered all sorts of goodies by Cruz campaign. Bad system!”
Cruz campaign aide Ken Cuccineelli, who often talks to delegates in an effort to win them over, told The Daily Caller, “The only whining going on he is with an H. And it’s from the trump people. When Stephanopoulos challenged Manafort Sunday –– name one example. He could not name one. Chuck Todd challenged him the first time with the gestapo tactics the first time it came up and he could not give an example. I could rattle off examples.”
RNC state officials laughed off the idea that they or other delegates were being bribed by the Cruz camp or any campaign for that matter.
“No I can actually tell you that when we had the meeting with Ted Cruz and when we had the meeting with Manafort and Wiley of the Trump campaign they had the same thing — soda and water bottles,” Rhode Island National Committeewoman Leeann Sennick told The Daily Caller. “They might have had coffee in the room. That was the extent of wining and dining.”
Alaska GOP Chairman Peter Goldberg agreed saying, “To my knowledge at this point no one no one has been bought lemonade much less wined or dined.”
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Trump supporter, plugged his state and would only say, “I hope that if anybody is wining or dining delegates, they’re doing it in Florida. I just want them to spend every dime they have and in the meantime by a house.”
“I have not. I have not. No not at all I haven’t had a private conversation with Cruz or Kasic about wining or dining or insinuating they will do something for me or anything. No. We’ve met with groups of people but we haven’t [been wined or dined],” the Louisiana GOP Chair told TheDC.
Maryland National Committeeman Louis Pope would only say, “Not a single time. In fact, most people have to pay to go to fundraisers. No.”