Rubio, meanwhile, has been stoking the embers on the campaign trail.

“If you get a call on Tuesday night saying I dropped out, it isn’t true. It’s a lie. Don’t believe it.” Rubio told a crowd of more than 700 in Derry, New Hampshire Friday evening. The crowd got the joke and laughed.
Cruz’s surrogates and staff are exasperated by all the attention.

“As long as Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and, to a significantly lesser degree, Ben Carson can benefit from this, they will push it,” King said. “It’s beyond the point where the facts matter. They’ll always continue to attack the credibility of Ted Cruz.” King added that he’s not convinced that Carson actually did intend to drop out, suggesting that he might have reversed course after the Cruz issue erupted.

Cruz has been fielding questions about the controversy at nearly every campaign here. But the campaign has so far refused to say who approved the initial dissemination of misleading information or whether campaign leaders made any attempts to contact the Carson campaign to verify his intentions.