Moonves from super bowl city in San Francisco. The ratings just came in for the two events, the debate and snl, and tying for night. Well start with something you rarely see, one of the countrys leading news outlets calling b. S. Literally when a candidate deeps saying something thats false. The news outlet in this case is cnn, and the story is about ted cruz. Cruzs rivals are accusing him of dirty tricks for telling iowa caucusgoers that ben carson was dropping out of the race. This story starts at 7 41 p. M. Monday with a scoop from cnn reporter chris moody that carson wasnt going straight from iowa to New Hampshire like all the other candidates, but instead was going home to florida. He tweeted that news andnent said this he said, ben carsons campaign tells me he plans to stay in the race beyond iowa no matter what the results are tonight. Clearly, carson was not dropping out, according to moodys reporting. Hell join me in a moment from New Hampshire. Lets look at how jake tapper and dana bash analyzed his scoop on the air that day. Here it is. Ben carson is going to go back to florida, to his home, regardless of how he does tonight here in iowa. Hes going to go there for several days, and then afterwards, hes not going to go to South Carolina. Hes not going to go to New Hampshire. Hes going to come to washington, d. C. , and hes going to do that because the National Prayer breakfast is on thursday. Very unusual. Very unusual. To be announcing that youre going home to rest for a few days, not going on to the next site. Very unusual, they said. It certainly was. But they didnt say he was dropping out of the race. Now the story gets a little murky at this point. Cruz Campaign Aides spread word to their supporters in iowa that carson might be or actually was dropping out. Maybe planning a big announcement even though cnn never said that. Carson accused cruz of dirting campaigning. Cruz dirty campaigning. Cruz apologized but blamed cnn causing Brooke Baldwin to call b. S. When senator cruz tries to throw my network and journalists under the bed, let me stand up for them. Im going to call out b. S. If i hear b. S. , and thats b. S. Under pressure, cruz admit that cnn got it correct. Last night at the debate, he reverted to his previous position. He said this my Political Team saw cnns report breaking news, and they forwarded that news to our volunteers. It was being covered on live television. I regret that subsequently cnn reported on that they didnt correct the story until 9 15 that night. From 6 30 p. M. To 9 15, thats what cnn was reporting. Subsequent to that initial report, bens campaign put out a statement saying that he was not suspending his campaign. I wish that our Campaign Staff had forwarded that statement. They were unaware of it. I wish that they had. Thats why i apologized. Senator cruz, thank you. In fact, the timeline indicates that that initial tweet from cnn was followed by another within one minute that clarified that i was not dropping out. Cnn tweets, now the subject of a president ial debate. That comment from cruz spurred this response from cnn. What senator cruz said tonight in the debate is categorically false. Cnn never corrected its reporting because cnn never had anything to correct. The Cruz Campaigns actions the night of the Iowa Caucuses had nothing to too with cnns reporting. The fact that senator cruz continues to knowingly mislead the voters about this is astonishing. Joining me in New Hampshire this morning is chris moody, along with dylan buyer, for media and politics. In washington, strategist doug high, former rnc communications director, and in charlottesville, director of the uva center for politics. Larry, let me ask you, youre an independent voice, not a cnn person. What do you think happened here . Do you think cruz is to blame, or is cnn to blame . Theres no question about it. This isnt a close call. Cruz is to blame. Cruz and his staff. Now look, Everybody Knows what he was doing. He was shifting the blame to cnn for a dirty trick. What was the reason for the dirty trick . To get some of those carson voters in the Iowa Caucuses to switch to cruz. He was the second choice of many of the carson voters. Its perfectly obvious. So why did cruz revert to the explanation that he himself had admit was false last night in the debate . Because he was at a republican debate. If theres one thing we know from a whole series of republican debates over three, four cycles, its that if you want to get out of a tight spot, blame the media. The republicans watching will almost always agree with you. Dylan, do you agree thats the Cruz Campaign strategy here . And if so, is it going to be effective in New Hampshire . Yeah. No, thats absolutely the Cruz Campaign strategy here. I think whats so baffling is how much theyve sort of gone back and forth over this issue. Theyve also seen that its an issue that cnn is not sort of going to take sitting down. I mean, when the Cruz Campaign first tried to throw cnn under the bus, there was a very aggressive response from the network pointing out the facts saying, no, thats just factually not true. Of course uultimately ted cruz relent and says cnn got it right. Now hes on the debate stage and says it again. The calculation is that the majority of viewers watching abc news at home, Republican Voters, are not going to be going to cnn to see the fact check and see whether or not thats true. Now this is becoming such a story in its own right that it that it it feeds into this perception, you know, the one that donald trump has tried to pin on ted cruz for a long time that hes not a likeable guy, that he doesnt tell the truth. And why he would want to feed into that perception when the facts arent on your side is a Campaign Strategy that i cant understand. Doug, do you think this hurts cruz . Yeah, i do. If the battle was truly just between ted cruz and the media, cruz would win. But its really between ted cruz and ben carson. I was in des moines interesting. On monday night. I saw chris moodys tweet. The conversation initially was what is ben carson doing . By the end of the night and the morning, the conversation was, what is ted cruz and his campaign doing . It hurts him because it knocks him off message. It knocks him with ben carson supporters, but it also says anybody whos worked on campaigns can talk about the volunteer who knocks over opponents signs. Thats not serious. This is serious. And it looks to be with so many iterations of it to be coordinated. And for ted cruz, his real challenge is hes past the point of where they can get out in front of this. Theyve got to get this behind them, and that wont be easy. Chris, let me ask you because you havent actually talked about your reporting from that night before now. This information you reported exclusively, this actually came from the carson campaign, didnt it . Yeah, brian. Let me give you a ticktock about what happened that night. I was assigned to cover carsons Victory Party in west des moines, in iowa. His campaign, two sources told me on the record instead of going straight to New Hampshire or to South Carolina as most candidates do, he was going to take a short, brief rest. They described it as a deep breath, by going home to florida, get his affairs in order, and head to washington, d. C. , for the National Prayer breakfast. Then, after that, head to New Hampshire for the debate. So i reported all of those things in order. Hes going to florida. Hes then i said, hes not dropping out. Ted cruzs campaign cher cherry picked part of that information and sent messages to precinct captain on email but called and said hes suspending campaigning, something i or no one else at cnn ever said. We also had a story on cnnpolitics. Com that had all of that information. So either ted cruzs Campaign Just stopped reading, or as others have said, it was something that was misleading intentionally. Im curious what its been like for you, chris, to see your reporting twisted in this way. It must be a strange experience to be talked about on a president ial campaign stage. Well, certainly is. But the reporting stands on its own. I dont have to necessarily comment or extrapolate on it. It is what it is, and its truth. Theres nothing more i really have to necessarily say to really defend it. Now, heres the problem that the facts were true, but as you know in politics, many times people can extrapolate from that and draw wrong conclusions. Ted cruzs campaign drew that wrong conclusion, ignored the other half of the sentence basically, and then blamed me for their wrong conclusion, saying that i had reported what they were telling everyone else. It all got lost in the speed that is an election night. Obviously, thats unfortunate for everyone involved. Again, it was never reported on cnn television, digital, o or social media that ben carson was dropping out. In fact, almost in the same breath it was reported that he was staying in the race, the exact opposite. Whats intriguing to me about the story, chris, and let me go to you on this, it does to me feel like carsons only sort of half running. You know, i grew up in maryland, im a marylander like carson is. Very fond of him over the years. It doesnt seem to me like he is campaigning as aggressively as some of the others. There was a kernel of truth to the idea that he was going to go home and take a deep breath. And as chris was saying, it was markup lated, maybe 2015ed by manipulated, maybe twisted by the campaign. Isnt there something to the idea that carson is not campaigning as aggressively as the others . Carsons never campaigned in the way that everybody else has. Its still a big mistake by a campaign thats made very few of them. Ive been impressed by the Cruz Campaign. This is something they should have tamped down on day one, maybe day two. Were now almost a week into this, and its pretty clear well be talking about this for several more days. In part because of what ted cruz said last night. Its a big mistake by a campaign thats made very view. I want to show a couple of other factcheckers. You shouldnt take cnns word, you should do your own research. Heres what the New York Times and woeshtd and president clinton fact said, the New York Times, dont blame cnn. President clinton fact, well show you the others, as well. I wonder, larry, if the bottom line about there is about Fact Checking. About whether Fact Checking is taken seriously by voters and news organizations and how you feel thats going in this president ial election cycle. Brian, i think one of the most disturbing things about a very disturbing election cycle for me has been the growth of this idea that somehow were in a postfactual era. God help us if were in a postfactual era. It is incumbent. Media organizations like cnn, all the other networks, newspapers, blogs, to go after the candidates hard when they misrepresent the facts. Not just to print a box with politifact fact, i love them, but you have to be repetitious, repetitious, repetitious. Bring it up, make them deal with it until they either take it back or admit they were wrong. Real quickly, do you think its possible well see news outlets be more forceful in the way that cnns statement was last night . Could we see more muscular Fact Checking in the next few months . I know a lot of viewers would like to see news outlets make clear, strong statements whether there are misstatements made by candidates. Well, thats a great question. And the sort of Fact Checking industry i would say has never been so strong. So look, the point is exactly right. It almost doesnt matter if a candidate doesnt pick up the ball and run with it. Cnn, the New York Times, politi fact can do the work, and believe me, they are doing diligent worveg work. At a certain point, the campaigns come down to a contest between candidates. What you saw last night was ted cruz go after not a candidate but a news network, much the way that donald trump has been engaged in a war with fox news of a little. And when the news network gets sort of dragged into this and the mudslinging is going toward news network, you see the robust response. Whether it comes to bigger when it comes to bigger issues, the things that candidates might be misleading viewers about, the economy, foreign policy, past records, at a person point theres only so much news organizations can do. Candidates have to step up and run with that ball and challenge their rivals on that if we want to see those things play out in the national media. Thank you all for being here. We should mention to the viewers at home, we have invited a cruz spokesperson on to cnn, and they have declined to comment. Coming up next, talking more about last nights debate and the big, weird mistake at the beginning. If you havent seen this, well play the whole thing and talk about it. Well talk about the huge ratings when we come back. Ne bu try alkaseltzer heartburn reliefchews. They work fast and dont taste chalky. Mmm. Amazing. I have heartburn. Alkaseltzer heartburn reliefchews. Enjoy the relief. Get fastacting, longlasting relief from heartburn with it neutralizes stomach acid and is the only product that forms a protective barrier that helps keep stomach acid in the stomach where it belongs. For fastacting, longlasting relief. Try gaviscon®. For fastacting, longlasting relief. At ally bank, no branches equals great rates. Its a fact. Kind of like grandkids equals free tech support. Oh, look at you, so great to see you none of this works. Come on in. What hand paired with even getmore lobster . Ked, you get hungry. And you count the seconds until red lobsters lobsterfest is back with the largest variety of lobster dishes of the year. Like new dueling lobster tails with one tail stuffed with crab, and the other with langostino lobster macandcheese, its a party on a plate and you know every bite of lobster lovers dream lives up to its name. Hey, eating is believing. So stop dreaming and start eating. Welcome back. Im looking at the rating from the break after the debates. They were huge, the highest debate of the year so far. Ill have more on cnn. Com later this hour. First, we have to talk about that intro. Lets pull back the curtain on how tv usually works. Debates are among the most rehearsed events in the news business. The networks practiced this stuff for days ahead of time. Last night when abc flubbed the introw of the candidates, it was a pretty awkward moment for the network. Matt lewis, cnn commentator and contributor of the daily caller, author of too dumb to fail. Also, ana marie cox, senior Political Correspondent with mtv news, and rick wilson, republican strategist and president of intrepid media. Guys, i want to talk about the substance of the debate. We have to play the intro first. Lets put it up in boxes. Well do it like a football play and see what went wrong. It started out okay. You see Chris Christie taking the stage. He heard the cue. Matt, apparently ben carson did not hear the cue over the roar of the audience. What were you thinking when you saw this . It was bizarre. I was wondering, is there a protest . Is ben carson doing something to make a point about i dont know in other words i thought it might be about Carly Fiorina not being on the stage. Yeah. Fiorina made a big deal out of how she wasnt invited. She didnt meet the abc criteria. When carson was standing there awkwardly, i wondered theres a guy in the background telling him, go, go. That should have been the snl cold open. Well show how snl handled this in a minute. Anna, when you were watching in New Hampshire, who did you feel sorry for . What i was thinking about the intro . I mean, too me it was par for the course to me it was par for the course for the race i feel like. Metaphor . I do. As a Mission Accomplished woman of the race, its something well look back on and say, yeah, that was the race where everyone forgot to enter. Everyone was screwed occupy the entries. Four, it was carson who i maut of course, it was carson who i thought maybe hadnt woke friend his nap. Still groggy. I think we should note it was the roar of the crowd, you know, that made this happen. It was a very enthusiastic crowd. I mean, we can make fun of it, and it certainly looked awkward. But to be fair, it had to do with how enthusiastic the crowd was and not any actual mixup on anyones part. Right. Right. And i felt somewhat bad for the moderator because there was only so much they could do to get the candidates attention. I think it was about the floor manager, stage director, who could have walked to ben carson, give him a gentle push to get him on the stage. A tap or something. Lets play how snl handled this. They turned around quickly and three hours later made fun of the whole thing. The republicans held a president ial debate in New Hampshire, and things got off to a real rocky start. Heres actual footage of ben carsons entrance where the one thing he forgot to do was enter. Jersey governor choiftd chri christie. [ applause ] ben carson [ wild cheering ] [ laughter ] oh, man. Of all people youd never expect ben carson to fall asleep at the wheel. That was how the intro was handled. Lets talk about the substance of the debate and start with the presence of donald trump because, rick, we all know trump skipped the fox news debate a week earlier. The ratings were lower for that debate. Higher for this debate. It indicates to me that trump did have an impact on the debate last night. I know that youre not a trump man. In fact, youre probably his biggest critic ive ever seen. Dont you think he had a good night on that