Ted Cruz's campaign just apologized for suggesting Ben Carson dropped out of the race

Ted Cruz's campaign apologized Tuesday for spreading a rumor before the Iowa caucuses that Ben Carson was dropping out of the Republican presidential race, calling the campaign email sent out "a mistake," The Hill reports.

"Last night when our political team saw the CNN post saying that Dr. Carson was not carrying on to New Hampshire and South Carolina, our campaign updated grassroots leaders just as we would with any breaking news story," Cruz said in a statement. "That's fair game. What the team then should have done was send around the follow-up statement from the Carson campaign clarifying that he was indeed staying in the race when that came out."

In reality, as Carson's campaign would later clarify, the retired neurosurgeon just meant he was heading home to get some clean clothes before heading on to New Hampshire — not dropping out of the race regardless of Iowa results.

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Carson called Cruz's campaign message a "dirty trick." Prior to the Cruz campaign's apology, a spokeswoman originally called Carson's allegation "absurd."