CNN is steadfastly standing behind their flawed report on Ben Carson taking a break from the campaign trail.

It wasn't what CNN tweeted that was so confusing as it was what Anchors Jake Tapper and Dana Bash said on air. Just about anyone that watched Tapper and Bash, would have gotten the impression that Carson was suspending his campaign.

The Ted Cruz campaign cited CNN's reporting in emails to voters, saying that Carson was dropping out.

Carson himself has sent emails blaming CNN.

While Cruz certainly shoulders some of the blame, the big problem was with CNN's report. Cruz explained what happened during the debate on ABC:

"On Monday night, about 6:30 p.m., CNN reported that Ben was not going from Iowa to New Hampshire or South Carolina. Rather, he was, quote, "Taking a break from campaigning." They reported that on television, CNN's political anchors, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash and Wolf Blitzer, said it was highly unusual and highly significant. My political team saw CNN's 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 didn't correct that story until 9:15 that night. So from 6:30 p.m. to 9:15, that's what CNN was reporting. Subsequent to that initial report, Ben's 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, that's why I apologized."

CNN put out a statement calling Cruz a liar:

"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 campaign's actions the night of the Iowa caucuses had nothing to do with CNN's reporting. The fact that Senator Cruz continues to knowingly mislead the voters about this is astonishing."

There is no doubt that both CNN and Cruz made the mistake, but it did start with CNN and then refuse to acknowledge it.

Shaking my head....