Ted Cruz ‘mistresses’ one is accused of ‘coming on’ to Him #LyingTed

Ted Cruz today denied cheating on his wife with five women - and claimed it was Donald Trump and his ‘henchmen’ who were spreading a smear, prompting a scathing response from the Republican frontrunner.

Cruz publicly denied cheating on his wife Heidi with five woman - described in the National Enquirer as including a ‘hot babe’ and a ‘$1,000 a night call girl’.

And he accused Donald Trump and his henchmen of being behind it saying his rival had acted to ‘enlist’ the Enquirer to spread a smear.

That prompted Trump to issue a lengthy statement denying being involved, but which said of the National Enquirer ‘they were right about O.J. Simpson, John Edwards and many others.’

‘I certainly hope they are not right about Lyin’ Ted Cruz,’ he said.

The extraordinary spectacle of the Christian conservative candidate defending the integrity of his marriage unfolded in the space of hours.

He first found himself facing extraordinary claims of five affairs when a story in the National Enquirer magazine became the subject of Washington gossip on Thursday night, and two women were named as potential mistresses by a Republican operative on Friday morning.

The Enquirer had never named the women with whom it accused Cruz of cheating on his wife Heidi.

Donald Trump’s spokeswoman Katrina Pierson (Left) pushed back on allegations - that started with a National Enquirer story - that she had an affair and ‘came on’ to Sen. Ted Cruz - and so did Amanda Carpenter.

How it began: A National Enquirer story started a guessing game in Washington circles - with a Republican strategist today providing two possible answers to who the women were. Both denied the claims.

The National Enquirer accused Ted Cruz of five affairs - all of which he denied today.

It did not name the women but said they were:

‘FOXY POLITICAL CONSULTANT’

One worked for Cruz, now associated with another political campaign, said the magazine.

‘”Randy Ted” supposedly had a romp with her in a closet at a Republican state convention.”

‘PRETTY LAWYER’

Worked for his Senate campaign when they had affair - and it continued as she worked elsewhere.

‘HOT BABE’

Caught ‘getting cozy’ on the campaign trail.

‘SEXY AUSTIN SCHOOLTEACHER’

Allegedly had ‘fling’ after he was made Texas solicitor general.

‘$1,000 A NIGHT CALL GIRL’

‘Ted supposedly had it on with a prostitute,’ the magazine said.

AND HERE’S WHAT THE MAGAZINE SAYS ABOUT CLAIMS IT WAS INFLUENCED BY TRUMP.

No one influences the reporting that the National Enquirer does other than our own reporters and editors.

We stand by the integrity of our coverage and remain committed to our aggressive reporting on such an important topic.

The more than any other publication, has been unflinching in its reporting on the 2016 presidential candidates.

But then the Republican behind an attack on Donald Trump earlier this week which featured a naked picture of his wife Melania named two women she said were alleged to be his mistress.

Liz Mair, a respected Republican strategist, used her Twitter to name Amanda Carpenter, a former spokeswoman for Trump who is now a CNN contributor, and a Trump spokeswoman, Katrina Pierson, who is also a former Cruz aide.

Both denied the claim robustly - but it lit a fire which Cruz then had to act to put out.

‘Let me be clear. This National Enquirer story is garbage,’ Cruz said this afternoon. ‘It is complete and utter lies. It is a tabloid smear and it is a smear that has come from Donald Trump and his henchmen.’

Then he launched into an attack on Trump saying his rival was a ‘rat’ - ‘but I have no desire to copulate with him’.

He blamed Roger Stone, a former Trump aide labeled a ‘ratf****r’ over claims he was involved in dirty tricks for the Nixon administration for the ‘garbage’, saying Stone had ’50 years of dirty tricks behind him’.

‘He’s a man for whom a term was coined for copulating with a rodent. Well, let me be clear. Donald Trump may be a rat but I have no desire to copulate with him.’

Then he used Facebook to blame Trump directly.

‘For Donald J. Trump to enlist his friends at the National Enquirer and his political henchmen to do his bidding shows you that there is no low Donald won’t go,’ he said.

‘These smears are completely false, they’re offensive to Heidi and me, they’re offensive to our daughters, and they’re offensive to everyone Donald continues to personally attack.’

But the claim that Trump had influenced it incensed the National Enquirer.

Its parent company AMI issued a statement saying: ‘No one influences the reporting that the National Enquirer does other than our own reporters and editors.’

By 5pm in the afternoon the rival candidates attacked each other’s mental health.

Trump’s rapid response was to retweet a suggestion Cruz was having a breakdown.

His message read: ‘@11phenomenon: #LyingTed blames @realDonaldTrump for so many things I am starting to think he is having a mental health crisis.’

Cruz, who has made his Christian faith and family values the centerpiece of his campaign for the White House, using campaign time to deny five affairs, sent shocks through Washington.

On twitter, the hashtag ‘TedCruzAffairs’ was one of the most popular across the nation.

Both women named by Mair denied they had committed adultery with Cruz.

And finally: The Cruz camp’s late afternoon response to the day’s developments

Last word: Donald Trump hit back by retweeting a suggestion that Cruz was having ‘a mental health crisis’

‘Speaking for myself, the article is trash and 100 percent false,’ Pierson told Daily Mail Online.

‘What’s out there is tabloid trash. If someone wants to comment on it, they can talk to my lawyer,’ said Carpenter of the allegations.  

Mair had named them both on Twitter this morning. She wrote tweets directed at both Pierson and Carpenter suggesting that they should sue as the allegations are ‘obviously false.’  

‘Ted Cruz should sue over [obviously] false allegation he had an affair [with] Katrina Pierson, [though] I’ve heard she may have come onto him. Who knows,’ Mair wrote.

The tweet incensed Pierson, who wrote back earlier this morning. 

‘What’s worse? People who actually believe the trash in tabloids, or the ones who know it’s false & spread it anyway? #stupidity on all levels,’ Pierson tweeted.

Pierson, a Dallas-based tea party leader had prominently been a Cruz supporter before switching her allegiance and vocally supporting Trump.

She eventually became a paid member of The Donald’s campaign. 

Contacted by email, Mair’s out-of-office reply indicated that had already left for the Easter holiday and would be back next week.

Turning to the Carpenter allegation, Mair had wrote: ‘As for people suggesting Amanda Carpenter slept [with] Cruz, she should sue them.’  

‘That is [obviously] false, as anyone who knows Amanda knows,’ Mair continued.

Donald Trump’s spokeswoman Katrina Pierson wrote this tweet this morning after Republican strategist publicly named her as one of the five women the National Enquirer claimed had an affair with Sen. Ted Cruz.

She did this too: Liz Mair was behind this campaign image distributed in Utah to attack Donald Trump earlier this week - to the fury of the Republican frontrunner, who blamed ‘Lyin’ Ted Cruz’ for it.

‘It would also be fun to get access to Trump comms staff, Trump Org emails as part of discovery in a defamation suit,’ Mair added in another tweet, tagging Carpenter’s Twitter handle.

Carpenter was forced to respond to the story during a live television segment.

The CNN contributor appeared alongside Trump supporter Adriana Cohen, a columnist for the Boston Herald.

The two women were supposed to be discussing this week’s tiff between the Cruz and Trump camps, but instead Cohen brought the tabloid story up.

‘If we’re going to call Donald Trump’s character into question, I would like Ted Cruz to issue a statement on whether or not the story is true, that he has had affairs with may women, including, you were named, Amanda,’ Cohen said, pointing to her co-panelist. 

‘Will you denounce this story or will you confirm it?’ 

Carpenter denounced, with an assist from host Kate Bolduan, who said that CNN had done no reporting to lend credibility to the Enquirer’s account and the subsequent Twitter claims as to who its unnamed women were.

‘It’s categorically false,’ Carpenter said. ‘You should be ashamed for spreading this smut. Donald Trump supporters should be held to account for it.’ 

Cohen blasted back: ‘I’m not spreading smut,’ she said. 

‘I will not be intimated,’ Carpenter replied. ‘I will continue to make my thoughts known about Donald Trump. I am not backing down.’

What the Enquirer got right: The news magazine correctly found that John Edwards was cheating on his wife with a campaign aide who had his love child.

On her Twitter page, Carpenter retweeted a show of support from prominent conservative pundit, who’s also on CNN, Mary Katherine Ham.

‘I am so with you, Amanda Carpenter & all the other women Trump & supporters casually smear,’ Ham wrote, including a block quote of Carpenter defending herself against Cohen on CNN.

Cruz also railed against the story on his Facebook page. 

‘I want to be crystal clear: these attacks are garbage. For Donald J. Trumpto enlist his friends at the National Enquirer and his political henchmen to do his bidding shows you that there is no low Donald won’t go,’ he wrote.

‘These smears are completely false, they’re offensive to Heidi and me, they’re offensive to our daughters, and they’re offensive to everyone Donald continues to personally attack, he continued.

‘Donald Trump’s consistently disgraceful behavior is beneath the office we are seeking and we are not going to follow,’ he added.

The original Enquirer story, which doesn’t appear online, but has been picked up by gossip sites like Gawker, says that political operatives are compiling a ‘dirt file’ on Cruz with private investigators looking into claims that he had affairs with a who’s who of Republican party politics – as well as a ‘sexy Austin schoolteacher’ and a ‘Washington, D.C. call girl.’

Besides Pierson and Carpenter, the third political type worked for a different presidential campaign, which has now aligned itself with Cruz. 

The only on-the-record source for the story is Roger Stone, a longtime Trump ally who previously worked for the campaign.

‘These stories have been swirling around Cruz for some time,’ Stone told the tabloid. ‘I believe where there is smoke, there is fire. I have to believe that this will hurt him with his evangelical Christian supporters.’

The attack on the credibility of Cruz’s marriage comes at an interesting time in the campaign as he has spent the week vehemently defending his wife.

Once Trump saw the ad featuring naked Melania, he unleashed on Cruz, even though the spot was produced by Mair’s super PAC.

In his most bold defense of Heidi Cruz yet, the candidate tore into The Donald during a campaign stop yesterday in Wisconsin.

‘Donald, you’re a sniveling coward and leave Heidi the hell alone,’ Cruz said.

While lines seem to be drawn between the Cruz and Trump people in today’s spat, Pierson squarely stayed on team Donald, ripping into Heidi Cruz this morning on MSNBC.

Pierson suggested that ‘spilling the beans’ on Heidi Cruz, a threat that Trump had issued over Twitter, was simply shedding light on her record of working for Wall Street.

‘So spilling the beans on Heidi Cruz simply means that her her entire career has been spent working against everything Ted Cruz says he stands for,’ Pierson said.