The spat arose after Donald Trump tweeted accusations that Sen. Ted Cruz's "people" were "doing very sleazy and dishonest 'pushpolls'" on him. | AP Photo Cruz denies Trump accusation over 'push polls'

Ted Cruz denied all knowledge of robocalls being made in South Carolina on Thursday after Donald Trump accused the Texas senator's "people" of "doing very sleazy and dishonest 'pushpolls' on me."

"I have no idea. We had nothing to do with them. I don't know what they were. We had nothing to do with them. So I had read reports of what is being said but somebody else is doing them, not us," Cruz told reporters before a rally with Glenn Beck in Fort Mill.


Brian Phillips, the Cruz team's rapid-response director, tweeted an hour after Trump's initial accusatory tweet, "The push polls are not coming from Cruz. Period."

The push polls are not coming from Cruz. Period. https://t.co/zrtoSnthTO — Brian Phillips (@RealBPhil) February 11, 2016

The episode follows a report by The Washington Post published earlier in the day that refers to robo-calls to potential voters in South Carolina that become hostile when the respondent voices support for a candidate other than Cruz. The Texas senator's campaign denied for that story that it was responsible for the calls, which said they were being conducted by Remington Research, the name of the consulting firm started by Jeff Roe, Cruz's campaign manager.

“We’re not doing any robo-polls in South Carolina,” Cruz’s director of research told the Post. "It’s not us making those calls. Anyone can make those calls as Remington Research to screw with reporters and make Jeff look like he’s doing something.”

Thursday is not the first time that Trump has accused Cruz's campaign of conducting push polling against him. In January, he tweeted:

Just found out that @tedcruz is spending a fortune on Iowa push polls negative to me. Not nice, but OK! New polls are great. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2016

Campaigns often use automated surveys to test different messages, which are often confused with push polls, which are designed to advance negative information or opposition research and are usually conducted under false pretenses. Message-testing, by contrast, is used by campaigns to gauge the effectiveness of various talking points.

Burgess Everett reported from Fort Mill, South Carolina.