By Bronte Price, PoliticKING
Donald Trump made waves on Tuesday after alleging that Ted Cruz’s father was with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the murder of John F. Kennedy. Trump was referencing a story in The National Enquirer, a pro-Trump tabloid, which claimed that Rafael Cruz was in a picture with Lee Harvey Oswaldin New Orleans in 1963 handing out pro-Fidel Castro pamphlets.
Although no other source corroborates the Enquirer's claim, it uses a testimonial from the CEO of a digitizing photo service, Mitch Gladstone, who says that the man in the photo has "more similarity than dissimilarity" to Cruz and that "it looks to be the same person and I can say as much with a high degree of confidence."
“His father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's being — you know, shot. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous,” Trump said on Tuesday in a phone interview with Fox News. “What is this, right prior to his being shot, and nobody even brings it up. They don't even talk about that. That was reported, and nobody talks about it.”
Donald Trump just accused Ted Cruz’s father of helping Lee Harvey Oswald assassinate JFK https://t.co/qPGrV06s4jpic.twitter.com/sabF2R0sV4
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) May 3, 2016
“I mean, what was he doing, what was he doing with Lee Harvey Oswald shortly before the death? Before the shooting?” Trump continued. “It’s horrible.”
A Cruz campaign spokesperson told the Miami Herald that this is “another garbage story in a tabloid full of garbage,” pointing to multiple flaws in the story.
Rafael Cruz told spoke to reporters saying, “I implore, I exhort every member of the body of Christ to vote according to the word of God and vote for the candidate that stands on the word of God and on the Constitution of the United States of America.” He continued, “I am convinced that man is my son, Ted Cruz. The alternative could be the destruction of America.”
Trump responded, “You look at so many of the ministers that are backing me, and they’re backing me more so than they’re backing Cruz, and I’m winning the evangelical vote,” Trump continued. “It's disgraceful that his father can go out and do that. And just, and so many people are angry about it. And the evangelicals are angry about it, the way he does that.”
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