The GOP presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio is accusing rival Sen. Ted Cruz's supporters of posting a doctored picture of the Florida lawmaker shaking hands with President Barack Obama.
The offending picture is on the site,
The Real Rubio Record, and shows a shot of a smiling Rubio grasping Obama's hand next to the caption: "The Rubio-Obama Trade Pact," suggesting the Florida lawmaker is teaming up with the president on the Trans Pacific Authority trade deal.
Rubio senior adviser
Todd Harris tells Politico the picture was edited — and Rubio doesn't own the tie or watch he's shown wearing.
Rubio backed the trade authority measure last year; the Texas lawmaker supported it initially, but voted no, Politico reports.
"There is a culture of dishonesty from top to bottom in the Cruz for president campaign," Harris said, Politico reports. "It is reflected in what Ted Cruz himself says, it's reflected by phony Facebook pages that his supporters put up, it's reflected by calls to Iowa voters saying Ben Carson dropped out. … And now the latest example is a completely invented photo of Marco Rubio attacking us for a position that Ted Cruz himself held a few short months ago."
Cruz "is obviously seeing something in his internal polling numbers that is creating a sense of desperation in his campaign," Harris said, Politico reports.
The anti-Rubio site states it's "Paid for by Cruz for President."
Rubio has snagged the prized
endorsement of South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and is in third place — within a percentage point of second-place Cruz — in an
averaging of polls in the state ahead of its Saturday primary.
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