“Collective Deception”: Lie Detection Experts on Cruz Sex Scandal, Carly Fiorina

Republican presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, right, is seen here on Monday, March 28, 2016, with former Republican candidate and Hewlitt-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in Rothschild, Wisconsin. (Photo: AP)

CIA lie detection experts say Sen. Ted Cruz and Hewlitt-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina are engaging in “collective deception” over the Cruz sex scandal. In a follow-up analysis in LawNewz.com, QVerify CEO Phil Houston and his colleague Don Tennant, who previously revealed Sen. Cruz displayed textbook deceptive behavior immediately after a National Enquire story alleged marital infidelity, said the press conference on Monday in Wisconsin “was pivotal” in their continual assessment (video below).

During the presser, Fiorina quickly intercepted a straightforward question posed by Daily Mail reporter David Martosko, which Houston and Tennant said “marked the first time we have seen an instance of collective deception in what appears to be a desperate effort to keep Cruz sufficiently unsullied” before the Wisconsin Republican primary.

“Can you please swat down more definitively this National Enquirer piece by telling us on the record that you’ve never been unfaithful to your wife?” Martosko asked.

Without actually responding to the charge, Fiorina jumped into a “multi-pronged” attack that targeted the reporter, the media, President Barack Obama and Republican front-runner Donald J. Trump.

“This response floored us, because it indicated to us not only that Fiorina likely thinks Cruz has indeed been unfaithful, but that she is willing to provide cover for him—and in doing so, displayed the same behaviors that we have seen from the Senator,” they said. “In failing to make the denial that we’ve been waiting to hear directly from Cruz, instead choosing to go into attack mode, Fiorina has left us to conclude that the greater good in her mind is to do whatever it takes to prevent Trump from winning, and she sees her defense of Cruz as furthering that aim.”

In their initial assessment of the senator, Mr. Houston and Mr. Tennant found him to be extremely deceptive. Though Mr. Houston, who has conducted thousands of interviews and interrogations for the CIA and other federal agencies, as well as Mr. Tennant were reserving judgement until more material became available, both “were struck by the volume of deceptive behavior” identified in Cruz’s initial statements.

Behaviorally, when the facts are on an individual’s side, he or she almost always explicitly denies the allegation(s). Except, he didn’t and at best implied a denial–followed by a disproportionate, non-factual attack on Mr. Trump–which is not the same as actually denying.

“He implied it by saying the allegations are false, and that they’re lies, but behaviorally, such statements are not equivalent to saying he never had the affairs,” they wrote. “Even if we were to overlook that fact and consider his statements to be a denial, there is an overwhelmingly higher proportion of attack behavior compared to the effort expended at denial. This type of lopsided attack-to-denial ratio is very consistent with what we have historically seen with deceptive people when allegations are levied against them.”

On Monday, according to Mr. Houston, who developed a human lie detection model while at the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Fiorina not only displayed the same deceptive behavior but also displayed a willingness to cover for Sen. Cruz. That is not a particularly flattering character trait.

Martosko repeatedly interrupted Fiorina to demand Sen. Cruz answer the question definitively, alone. Without her help. “Well that’s fine, too,” he said. “But Senator, I’m sorry, this is a very serious question about your character. Will you just, if the answer is, ‘Yes, I’ve always been faithful to my wife,’ just say so, please?”

If Sen. Cruz was telling the truth, he would’ve simply said, “Yes, I have always been faithful to my wife.” But, when given the chance yet again, he did not even utter something that remotely resembles a definitive denial. Instead, he again chose to level an attack on the reporter and repeated what he knows to be a false, “seemingly scripted attack” on Mr. Trump as the one behind the National Enquirer story.

Kirsten Powers, writing for The Daily Beast, confirmed what PPD previously reported about the source of the National Enquirer story, which is that it was peddled by allies of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. The senator, who was soundly defeated in his own home state, launched an unprecedented bid to keep his delegates after suspending his presidential campaign.

“But in so many cases, when we see deception carried out to this extreme—relentless, almost vicious attacks, accompanied by staunchly positioning oneself as a champion of more important matters—the actual problematic behavior is even more egregious than anything that was ever alleged,” the analysts said. “What we characterize as the collective deception of Fiorina and Cruz is beginning to raise that specter.”

To be fair, both human lie detection experts have also applied the same techniques to conclude Mr. Trump and other candidates were deceiving (lying) to the public in previous statements. And they were adamant to point that out.

“That said, no one should construe the conclusions we’ve drawn here as an argument in favor of Donald Trump or any other presidential candidate,” Houston and Tennant said. “Indeed, we have observed and documented plenty of deceptive behavior not only on the part of Trump, as we previously mentioned, but on the parts of the Democratic candidates, as well. We have no interest in taking sides. If we are advocates for anyone in this discussion, it’s the American electorate, which we don’t want to see swayed by deception.”