A top campaign official for Texas Sen. Ted Cruz apologized Sunday after linking to a video that wrongly depicted Florida Sen. Marco Rubio as trash-talking the Bible.
Campaign spokesman Rick Tyler also told Fox News on Monday that the post was a "mistake."
Tyler originally had linked to a story showing a video of Rubio walking by a Cruz staffer and Cruz’s father Rafael, who were reading the Bible in a hotel lobby. The original subtitles on the video showed Rubio saying to the staffer, “Got a good book there, not many answers in it.”
But after Tyler linked to the story, Rubio communications director Alex Conant tweeted out the same video with what he says are the correct subtitles -- and they tell a very different story.
This video has correct transcript; any other is another dirty trick by Cruz camp. How do I know? I'm in the video!! https://t.co/llZGimU5Jp
— Alex Conant (@AlexConant) February 21, 2016
In them, Rubio actually says of the Bible, “All the answers are in there.”
Conant called the move “another dirty trick” by the Cruz campaign.
Tyler told Fox News on Monday that the campaign made a mistake.
"I posted in haste, I should not have done it," Tyler told Fox News' Martha MacCallum. "It was a mistake and I would not knowingly post something I knew to be false."
Tyler also apologized Sunday on Facebook, noting the Cruz staffer in the video said Rubio made a “friendly and appropriate remark.” (The source of the original report, The Daily Pennsylvanian, has nevertheless stuck by its original transcript of Rubio's remarks.)
I want to apologize to Senator Marco Rubio for posting an inaccurate story about him here earlier today. The story...
Posted by Rick Tyler on Sunday, 21 February 2016
It is the latest “dirty tricks” accusation to hit the Cruz campaign.
Rubio also criticized the Cruz campaign last week for using a doctored image of Rubio supposedly shaking hands with President Obama. This, after the Cruz campaign also faced accusations of spreading false rumors on Iowa caucus night that Ben Carson was dropping out -- when in fact Carson had only announced he was going to Florida to pick up some fresh clothes.
Cruz held a secret meeting Thursday with Carson in a storage closet to try to clear the air over the Cruz campaign’s tactics. Cruz has described the Iowa caucus incident as a simple mistake, blaming it on a media report regarding Carson's travel plans.