Fox News host Chris Wallace smacked down Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz on Sunday after the GOP hopeful suggested suggested that tough questions about dirty election tricks meant that the anchor was working for Donald Trump's campaign.
"Your campaign has been involved in a series of incidents that people are calling dirty tricks," Wallace noted during an interview on Fox News Sunday. "In Iowa, the Cruz campaign sent out tweets saying Ben Carson was suspending his campaign. That was false. The campaign put out fliers accusing people of voting violations, that was false. In South Carolina, a Cruz super PAC attacked Trump over the Confederate flag."
"And your then-communications director posted a link this week accusing Rubio of disrespecting the Bible," Wallace added. "That was false. Do you take personal responsibility -- this was your campaign except for the super PAC -- do you take personal responsibility for this series of incidents? And what does it say about the culture of the campaign you are running?"
Cruz insisted that "every accusation" raised by Wallace was "incorrect."
"I appreciate your reading the Donald Trump attack file on that," the Texas senator quipped.
"Oh, come on, sir," the Fox News host interrupted. "Wait a minute, sir. You personally apologized to Ben Carson on a debate stage."
"Chris, don't interrupt me," Cruz ordered.
"You fired your communications director," Wallace continued.
"Chris, don't interrupt me," Cruz repeated.
"Don't say this in an oppo file on our part, sir," Wallace shot back.
"Chris, please don't interrupt me," Cruz tried again.
"Please don't accuse me of something I didn't do," Wallace suggested.
"Let me know when I'm allowed to answer," the candidate grumbled.
"Well, don't accuse me of doing something I didn't do," the Fox News host said. "Two of those things, you apologized for one and you fired your communications director. Don't say this is the oppo file."
Cruz responded by arguing that his campaign had the "highest level of integrity" from the beginning.
"You didn't ask Donald Trump about the robocalls that went out from a white supremacist group supporting Donald Trump," Cruz said. "When it comes to telling the truth and not telling the truth, you didn't ask Donald Trump about in the last debate, I asked him, true or false, you support socialized medicine, the government paying for your health care. He said false and it's directly contrary to what he said for 20 years on the record."
"The facts matter," Cruz added. "I understand that there are folks that don't want to focus on the facts."
"If you want to ask him those questions," Wallace noted. "Guess what, you'll get the opportunity at the Fox debate on Thursday."
