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CNN anchor to Cruz: 'That was B.S.'

CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin called out Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday for claiming the media was purposely "stirring up" a fight between himself and Dr. Ben Carson.

Cruz was asked during a campaign stop on Wednesday -- aired on CNN -- whether he was going to fire anyone for pushing out a message to supporters in Iowa on Monday that made it seem like Carson was dropping out of the race after his campaign announced he was headed to Florida. Cruz later apologized for not clarifying to his supporters that Carson was not in fact suspending his campaign.

"Our political team passed on a CNN news story that CNN broke. The news story said that Ben Carson was not continuing from Iowa on to New Hampshire he was not continuing to South Carolina. Instead he was going home to Florida. That was a news story CNN posted. And our political team passed it on to our supporters," Cruz said on Wednesday.

He continued: "It was breaking news that was relevant. Subsequent, the Carson campaign put out another statement saying he was not in fact suspending his campaign. And I apologized to Ben for our team not passing on their subsequent clarification. But this is not a campaign that scapegoats our staffers, that holds someone out there and fires them for political purpose. No, we're not going to scapegoat anybody. And I would note that the news story that [our team] passed on was true and accurate. CNN reported it. And in fact, Ben did go to Florida instead of New Hampshire or South Carolina."

Cruz then claimed the entire episode was the media trying to stir up controversy.

"There is a reason why the media is chattering about this. Because the media wants to stir up a fight between Ben Carson and me. I love Ben. I'm not interested in criticizing him. I will praise Ben and his character. That's the only place I'm going. And there is a reason why Donald Trump wants to focus on it. He wants a circus sideshow and he knows the folks in media will happily oblige," Cruz said.

The network then cut back to Baldwin in the studio, who said it was "not accurate" that the media was purposely trying to stir up controversy and defended CNN's initial story on Carson's departure.

"Okay. Just so we're all crystal clear here, when Senator Cruz, with all due respect, tries to throw my network and CNN under the bus, let me stand up for my colleagues and journalists here in terms of this CNN report that he keeps quoting," Baldwin said.

"We reported it accurately. And here are the facts. Dr. Carson's staff told us that he would return home to Florida to, quote, unquote, take a breath from the campaign before resuming his activities on the campaign trail. That accurate report was disseminated on television, and CNN digital and that was that. That was that," she said.

"I'm going to call out B.S. if I hear B.S.," Baldwin said. "And that was B.S."