By Craig Andresen Right Side Patriots http://www.americanpbn.com/

Nearly as soon as Donald Trump announced his candidacy, with the presumptive front runner being heralded as Jeb Bush…the National Enquirer ran a hit piece aimed directly at Bush, accusing him of being involved in some drug-running thing back in the 80’s and followed it up with some nonsense regarding a supposed sex scandal between Jeb Bush and a Playboy bunny.

It was all pretty unnecessary as Bush never got his campaign off to even a slow roll but it was the Enquirer’s first foray into the 2016 race.

Then, last Fall, when it looked like there might be a growing grassroots movement behind Dr. Ben Carson, the National Enquirer ran a salacious story alleging that Carson, in the course of an operation, left a sponge in a patient’s brain.

The article went on and on making outlandish and rhetorical statements about Carson, calling him a “White House wannabe,” and accusing him of using his scalpel like “a meat cleaver,” among other things.

For his part, Carson dismissed the Enquirer telling reporters that, “It is true that we put a certain type of sponge in to pad things away and sometimes there is a reaction to that sponge and that’s what happened.” Carson also related the fact that he has performed more than 15,000 operations and after digging through every ditch they could find, the Enquirer managed to find 5 or 6 patients with an axe to grind but, according to Carson, “many of those cases never went anywhere, because the legal system said, ‘Are you kidding me?’ and threw it out.”

The facts proved Carson to be correct and the story was short-lived but it accomplished one very important thing…

It cooled Carson’s appeal to voters…a cooling from which he never recovered.

Then there was Carly Fiorina…of whom the National Enquirer trashed at the expense of her deceased daughter after the candidate told a heartfelt story about her during a debate.

From that trash article… “The National Enquirer has exclusively learned that Lori Ann Fiorina, who died in October 2009, was in fact Carly’s stepdaughter. She was brought up not by Carly but by her biological mom, Patricia Fiorina, whose marriage allegedly was wrecked by the 61-year-old White House hopeful who is determined to knock Donald Trump from his superior front-runner status!”

Are you starting to see the bigger picture here?

Remember, this was not long after Trump attacked Fiorina regarding her…looks. “Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? I mean, she’s a woman, and I’m not s’posedta say bad things, but really, folks, come on. Are we serious?”

Trump saw himself as the only outsider in the race but the fact is, he has never been the only outsider in the 2016 race. Ben Carson was an outsider. Carly Fiorina was an outsider too. Trump couldn’t handle it…he just couldn’t take the heat, especially considering that Fiorina could run substance and policy circles around the squawking billionaire and Carson was respected, something Trump doesn’t have and in Trump’s world, he has replaced respect with fear. People don’t respect Donald Trump, they fear his deep pockets and obtuse connections.

Now Trump has run up against someone who doesn’t respect or fear him…and the last of the outsiders…Ted Cruz.

Yes, much to the consternation of Trumpoholics everywhere, Ted Cruz is the ultimate outsider. Cruz was elected by the people of Texas to go to Washington and stand not only against Obama but against the Washington cartel as well, and that is exactly what he has done. Cruz has stood steadfastly against Obama, steadfastly for the Constitution and he has called out the GOP establishment from the floor of the senate which hasn’t garnered Cruz many friends in the halls of congress from either party.

Cruz doesn’t respect Trump as Cruz is a man of principle who has little to no use for the narcissistic, misogynistic, low-stooping Trump…a man of little to no principles or core values whatsoever and one who has, for years…decades in fact, supported the liberal/socialists of Washington when it suited him in return for political favors, and a guy who has, as recently as 2014, supported the GOP establishment in the effort of destroying the Tea Party.

Ted Cruz also doesn’t fear Trump’s wallet as he knows that one of Trump’s favorite tactics is to sue those with whom he disagrees and then run the clock until the person or corporation being sued can no longer afford the court costs.

What’s a mob-connected, narcissistic, purveyor of bombast who has no substance, like Trump, to do regarding a guy like Cruz?

Simple…resort to what has worked before. Engage in the politics of personal destruction by relying on connections to do his dirty work for him.

Enter David Pecker, the owner of the National Enquirer.

Pecker and Trump have been buddies for many, many years. In fact, back in 2013, as Time magazine was undergoing some changes, Trump suggested they make Pecker, Time’s main guy by putting him in charge of the whole operation.

Pecker and the National Enquirer have been as in Trump’s back pocket as possible throughout the campaign…running glowing pieces on him while attempting every salacious hit job they could on any candidate Trump saw as a challenger from day one. Bush…Carson…Fiorina and now, Ted Cruz.

And right on cue, after going to press with the allegations against Cruz, the National Enquirer, under David Pecker, endorsed Trump.

Big surprise.

It also reeks like a week old fish on a Phoenix street corner.

Sure, the Enquirer has been right before, but they’ve also been very, very wrong before and have had to pay the price in court over and over again…a fact no doubt not lost on Pecker or Donald Trump and just as Trump has promised to pay court costs for his blind followers who punch out protesters, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if he told Pecker he’d cover him too and thus…knowing of Trump’s wallet, Pecker probably felt he had nothing to lose and sales to gain.

The smear piece in question states, “Private detectives are digging into at least five affairs Ted Cruz supposedly had.”

Notice the disclaimer?

“Digging into,” means they don’t have any evidence and “supposedly had,” means it’s all hearsay that wouldn’t stand up in court if not an out and out lie and my money is on the out and out lie. This is how a cat box liner protects itself from a lawsuit and how the low-life ilk of Donald Trump and David Pecker get the low-information, poorly educated to run with the baseless allegations all over social media.

The object here is two-fold.

First, to get Cruz to spend his time refuting these baseless allegations day and night rather than run a campaign based on substance and policy.

Second, it keeps the press from asking Trump any questions that would require substance and policy in the answers.

The simple fact of the matter is that Trump has no policies that make any coherent sense and no substance whatsoever and in what is now a two man race, against an opponent who has both cohesive policy plans and a barge-load of substance…Trump is desperate for any distraction he can find and I am sure Pecker knows that as well.

Cruz has called out Trump on this transparent smear campaign stating,  “This National Enquirer story is garbage. It is complete and utter lies,” and accusing, “Donald Trump and his henchmen,” of feeding the pack of lies to the Enquirer.

But Cruz had even more to say…

For his part, Trump issued this statement…“I have nothing to do with the National Enquirer and unlike Lyin’ Ted Cruz I do not surround myself with political hacks and henchman and then pretend total innocence. Ted Cruz’s problem with the National Enquirer is his and his alone, and while they were right about O.J. Simpson, John Edwards, and many others, I certainly hope they are not right about Lyin’ Ted Cruz.”

You can see exactly who Trump surrounds himself with by clicking here!!!

This sleaze, Donald Trump and his beneath contempt friends backed up by blind, low-information voters are a disgrace…they are desperate, and they wallowing about at the bottom of the cesspool because they simply can’t compete, in the arena of policy, substance, principles or core values with an opponent like Senator Ted Cruz.

Trump’s tactics are starting to open eyes as to the true, and sickening notion of who he really is.

On Friday, radio host Michael Savage, a man who has been in the tank for Trump, told his audience that his sources…a source he would trust with his life, a source who is in direct contact with the National Enquirer itself has told him that the National Enquirer smear piece is “completely false,”  and that, “we don’t have it…it’s all innuendo,” and Savage also told his audience that Cruz is completely justified in being offended “over this utter garbage.”

Savage went on to state that he is ready to pull his support of Trump if Trump doesn’t, “completely disavow the story,” the National Enquirer and David Pecker.

Of the five women this Pecker  and his rag claims were involved, none of them actually named in the smear piece, two have now come forward and denied any involvement whatsoever because the rag did a very poor job of hiding their identity. One, Amanda Carpenter, went on CNN Friday afternoon and vigorously denied the smear piece. A second woman, former Cruz staffer and current propagandist for Trump, Katrina Pierson, shut down her Instagram account and also denied any involvement.

A third woman, who has not given her name but apparently who recognized herself in one of the lightly blurred photos released a statement to the Gateway Pundit stating, “It’s ridiculous. Anyone with half a brain knows it’s false. I don’t think the article is true. I can’t see Cruz being like that… All I know is it’s not me. There’s a reason they don’t use my name. They know it’s BS.”

Another of the supposed five to be identified is Sarah Isgur Flores, who worked for a Fiorina Pac and while, as of the writing of this article, she has not officially denied and disavowed this smear, she may well do so before I have an opportunity to publish this article and I believe she will also put an end to the side smear that Cruz paid her hush money.

But why Pierson? Why would Trump be involved in a fake smear load of crap that she would immediately deny involvement in? For the sole purpose of plausible deniability. He can now come out, as this all falls apart but after the damage to Cruz is done and the distraction has been successful, and say...’it wasn’t me…I didn’t do it and if I did, why would I involve Pierson?’

I’m telling you now, that we can expect more and more of this as we head into the final 20 primaries because Trump is scared into a state of rigid pucker and constipation, so much so that he will do anything to avoid facing questions regarding policy or substance, of which he has neither, but if he thinks the approach he’s used against Bush, Carson, Fiorina, Rubio and Cruz, is going to be successful against Hillary, should either make it to November… because sadly, acting like a 2 year old with a wet diaper who isn’t getting his way is all he has left…he is going to be humiliated.

If he goes full bore, smear and bully against the Butcher of Benghazi, the liberal/socialist voting bloc will circle their collective wagons and Trump will lose by double digits.

Any who continue to follow Donald Trump, this sleazy, low-information candidate, continue to buy into his lies and liberal tactics or continue to share his sleazy, liberal BS tactics on social media after this, are as lacking in a moral compass and equally as pathetic as he is.

Finally, am I saying Trump’s slimy fingerprints are all over this?

No…not yet, but this stinks of expensive hair products, foreign car leather seats, a signature line of clothes made in Mexico and a Chinese baseball cap.

RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS…LIVE!

TODAY, March 26th from 11am to 1pm EST, RIGHT SIDE PATRIOTS Craig Andresen and Diane Sori discuss Trump’s smear campaign against Ted Cruz, the fallout from the Brussels bombing, and Craig unloads with the snark cannon.

Tune in at: www.americanpbn.com