Rubio campaign knocks Cruz over faked photo

by Jesse Byrnes - 02/18/16 12:26 PM ET

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz’s campaign is being accused of photoshopping an image of rival Marco Rubio shaking hands with President Obama.

Rubio aides take issue with the newly released Cruz campaign website www.therealrubiorecord.com, which compares the Florida senator to Obama.

{mosads}Among the images on the website is one seemingly showing a beaming Rubio shaking hands with Obama — both using their left hands — on a page attacking Rubio over legislation to fast-track trade deals.

Rubio campaign senior strategist Todd Harris pointed out the photo, which he called “photoshopped,” to reporters in South Carolina on Thursday, according to reports.

Cruz’s campaign did not deny that the photo was photoshopped.

“If Rubio has a better picture of him shaking hands with Barack Obama I’m happy to swap it out,” Cruz campaign spokesman Rick Tyler told CNN, claiming Rubio’s campaign had also used photoshopped images of Cruz.

“Two days before presidential primary in South Carolina, they want to talk about a picture we used.”

Here’s the side-by-side of the Obama/Rubio photoshop that Rubio’s team is slamming Cruz camp over pic.twitter.com/LqdkHrR3vK

— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) February 18, 2016

Rubio’s campaign also released a video of Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), who is campaigning for Rubio ahead of Saturday’s primary in the state, bashing Cruz over the image.

“You’re better than that. You’re running for the highest office in the land. Your campaign ought to be better than that,” Gowdy says in the ad.

“When you run ads that are so fake that you photoshop somebody’s head on somebody else’s body — come on,” he adds incredulously, accusing Cruz’s campaign of attempting to mislead voters.

Rubio and Cruz are battling behind Donald Trump two days before votes are cast in South Carolina.

Other campaigns have accused Cruz of dirty tricks during the campaign. Among them, Ben Carson has said Cruz’s campaign spread a false report that Carson was ending his campaign during the Iowa caucuses earlier this month.

Read more from The Hill:

Team Rubio lashes out at Cruz’s ‘culture of dishonesty’